Police in southern Germany have confirmed that a 14-year-old girl was killed and a 13-year-old suffered serious injuries Monday morning after being attacked on the street on their way to school in the village of Illerkirchberg.
The two were attacked around 7:30 a.m. (CET) by a man reportedly wielding a knife.
The girls were immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where the 14-year-old died and the 13-year-old remains in critical condition.
Though police did not offer details about the attacker, they did confirm that he had a knife. Wolfgang Jürgens, Ulm Police spokesman, said the man had fled into a nearby building where he and two other individuals were arrested.
Police told reporters, “Now, we have to do a thorough background investigatation.” Another spokesperson suggested a posssible autopsy on the 14-year-old in order to determine an exact cause of death.
Speaking of the arrests, police said that part of their investigation will be to determine who among the three individuals arrested Monday is the suspect, if that individual lives in the house into which he fled, and what if any connection he may have with the other two men arrested.
No motive has yet been announced.
Local police say the operation, which was carried out with the assistace of a SWAT team, has now ended and there is no longer a threat to the public.
Mayor Markus Häussler, who was at the crime scene all morning, called the situation “horrible” when speaking with the regional Südwest Presse newspaper.
Häussler said Illerkirchberg — a picturesque baroque village of 5,000 situated south of Ulm at the Baden-Wuerttemberg/Bavaria border halfway between Stuttgart and Munich — is “in a state of shock.”
js/wd (Reuters, dpa)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-14-year-old-girl-dies-after-knife-attack-near-ulm/a-63989745?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom