German police are investigating whether the stabbing in a train just across the border in Herzogenrath (near Aachen) was an Islamic terrorist act. Four passengers and the assailant were injured in the attack. A police officer, who also happened to be on the train, was able to overpower the troublemaker. Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, called it “an act of rage” in a press conference.
According to Reul, the 31-year-old man of Iraqi descent randomly stabbed train passengers. A 60-year-old police officer in plain clothes managed to bring the perpetrator to the ground along with two other train passengers and arrest them. Both the officer and the assailant were injured.
Reul praised the bravery of the agent and both train passengers. “These three people have prevented worse,” it sounded.
The train had left Herzogenrath for Aachen with 270 passengers. The injured had cuts to the face, hand or shoulder. No one was seriously injured.
Train traffic between Mönchengladbach and Aachen was halted. The German police went to the scene with two hundred officers to hear the passengers on the train as witnesses.
The suspect is not unknown to the police, according to Reul. He lives somewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia, his current nationality is unknown. In 2017, the asylum seekers center where the man was staying tipped off the police. There was a fear that the man adhered to radical Islamic ideas. According to Reul, the man has since isolated himself further and further from his surroundings and has grown a beard. He also took on different names, making it difficult to determine his identity.
“Now it must be investigated whether there was actually an Islamic background for this act,” said Reul. A specialized team of the police must carry out this investigation.
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