Hamburg [Germany], May 25: A magistrate has ordered the 39-year-old suspect in the knife attack at Hamburg's central train station to be placed in a psychiatric institution, police said on Saturday.
The suspect, a German national, was detained on Friday evening after allegedly stabbing people at random at the busy transport hub, injuring 18 people. She is accused of 15 cases of attempted manslaughter combined with grievous bodily harm, the police said.
The charges relate to the people who were directly injured with the knife and suffered cuts or stab wounds of varying severity, the police said in a statement. The remaining victims suffered other injuries, due to shock or falls.
According to earlier police reports, the act was not politically motivated.
"On the contrary, there are now very concrete indications that the suspect is mentally ill," police said. Three women aged 24, 52 and 85, as well as a 24-year-old man, were taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after the attack.
Police said in an update on Saturday that they were all stable. Seven other people were seriously injured, and seven people sustained minor injuries.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher said on Saturday afternoon that some of the victims had been released from hospital. "It is a great relief. I hope they recover well and wish them and their families a lot of strength," he wrote on the social media platform X.
He did not give an exact number for how many of the injured had been released.
At the time of the attack at around 6pm (1600 GMT), the train station - one of Germany's main transit centres - was very busy, and platform 13/14 was full of people.
The knife attack was stopped thanks to a brave intervention by two bystanders, the police said. Emergency services were then able to quickly arrest the 39-year-old woman, who did not resist arrest.
Source: Qatar Tribune
