By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BERLIN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Stuffed animals and candles were seen at the site in southern Germany where a 2-year-old boy of Moroccan origin and a 41-year-old German man were killed in a knife attack that Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz called an “act of terror.”
Police said they had detained an Afghan man following Wednesday’s stabbings in a park in the town of Aschaffenburg in Germany’s Bavaria state, adding he was cooperating with prosecutors.
Besides those killed, three other people were injured in the attack, including a 72-year-old German man, a 59-year-old German woman, and a 2-year-old Syrian girl, police added in a statement.
Train service in Aschaffenburg was briefly suspended when the suspect attempted to flee along the tracks, but police quickly detained him, officials said.
According to investigators, a second person arrested was being treated “as a witness,” and there were no immediate indications that the assailant had accomplices.
The attack prompted politicians to demand stricter migration and law enforcement rules ahead of upcoming elections in Germany, where millions received asylum in recent years, including many from volatile Muslim nations.
While visiting Aschaffenburg late Wednesday, Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect had “suddenly and deliberately” targeted a child in a day-care group.
SLAIN MAN
The slain man was a passerby who apparently intervened to protect the children. The 59-year-old injured woman is a caregiver with the group, according to police investigators.
A search of the suspect’s living quarters found no evidence of an Islamist motive, officials said.
“At the moment, the suspicion is very strongly that he obviously has mental illnesses,” Hermann told media, playing down possible terror motives.
However, in emotionally charged remarks, Chancellor Scholz described the violent assault as an “inexplicable act of terror” that required “immediate consequences – it’s not enough just to talk.”
“I am sick of such acts of violence occurring every few weeks. Of attackers who came to us seeking protection. Misplaced tolerance is completely inappropriate,” he stressed.
With a month left in a campaign for snap elections dominated by debate on immigration and asylum policy, Scholz demanded authorities “explain immediately why the assailant was even still in Germany.”
The suspect lived in an asylum centre in the area, the influential German news outlet Der Spiegel reported.
‘DESPICABLE ACT’
Markus Söder, the conservative premier of Bavaria, where the attack occurred, called it a terrible day for his state and denounced a “cowardly and despicable act.”
Election frontrunner Friedrich Merz, head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), shared those sentiments, saying he was deeply shocked by the violence. “This can’t go on,” he said in a statement. “We must and we will re-establish law and order.”
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, running second in the polls, wrote on social media platform X: “Remigration now!” referring to her party’s controversial call for mass deportation of migrants and asylum seekers.
It was the latest in a series of violent attacks in Germany, fuelling calls ahead of the 23 February election for stricter security measures in what is Europe’s largest economy.
Germans still recall that last month, a Saudi doctor was arrested after a car-ramming rampage at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg in which six people were killed and about 200 injured.
In June, a policeman died after he intervened in a knife attack allegedly by an Afghan man at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim in the south-west.
And in August, three people were killed and eight injured in a mass stabbing at a street festival in the western city of Solingen.
ISLAMIC STATE
The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, and the police detained a Syrian suspect.
After that violence just weeks before three key state elections, Scholz’s government responded by tightening rules on knives in public places.
The government also decided to limit benefits for asylum seekers and move to allow swifter deportation of those whose claims for asylum have been rejected.
Merz’s CDU has vowed to implement a harder line on immigration, including a de facto ban on new asylum requests at the border.
The attacks have also led to a broader discussion within the European Union about the ongoing influx of migrants in the 27-nation bloc.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of the most vocal anti-migration EU leaders, says he is pleased that Donald J. Trump returned to the White House partly because he shares many of his views on asylum seekers.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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