Knife Attack at Train Station in Hamburg, Germany, Wounds at Least 17

 

Knife Attack at Train Station in Hamburg, Germany, Wounds at Least 17

 

Four of the victims are in critical condition. The police say they believe a 39-year-old woman carried out the attack, for which no motive has yet been given.

 

By Eve SampsonChristopher F. Schuetze and Clay Risen

May 23, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/world/europe/hamburg-germany-knife-attack.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

At least 17 people were injured in a knife attack at the central train station in the German city of Hamburg on Friday evening, according to the local fire department.

 

Four of the victims are in critical condition, a spokesperson from the fire department said, adding that all the victims had been hospitalized.

 

The Hamburg police said they believed that a 39-year-old woman had acted alone in carrying out the attack, but the investigation was ongoing.

 

The police were still investigating a possible motive, but said they believed that the woman might have been in a state of mental distress, according to Florian Abbenseth, a Hamburg police spokesman, who said the woman had given herself up without resistance when the police arrived on the scene.

 

“The perpetrator is in custody,” said Peter Tschentscher, Hamburg’s mayor, on Friday night. “I wish the victims of the crime much strength and hope that those who are seriously injured will also be able to be saved.”

 

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, spoke with the mayor to give his condolences and to offer help from federal authorities.

 

The attack occurred on a crowded platform of the station, according to local news reports, and in front of a waiting long-distance train. Witnesses described a scene of chaos around 6 p.m. local time, as the attacker started to randomly stab travelers.

 

Hamburg’s central train station is Germany’s busiest, and one of its most dangerous, according to the police. Because of the number of violent altercations there, the city declared the station and its surroundings a weapons-free zone, essentially giving the police more power to search and arrest potential troublemakers.

 

This is the second major knife attack in Germany this week.

 

On Monday, the police arrested a man suspected of carrying out a knife attack on Sunday outside a bar in Bielefeld, in western Germany, wounding five people.

 

The authorities say the 35-year-old man arrived from Syria in 2023 and had been granted the temporary right to stay in Germany.

 

In that case, the man told police through a translation app that he supported the Islamic State terrorist organization, Der Spiegel reported.

 

The police say they seized two long kitchen knives, as well as a knife attached to a stick, in a backpack at the crime scene, which they believe belonged to the suspect. They also seized a plastic bottle of gasoline.

 

Eve Sampson is a reporter covering international news and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.

 

Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

 

Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.