Early morning reports that painted the suspect in this train station knifing as a refugee have been dismissed by authorities as false, the Daily Beast reported.
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However, Bavaria’s top security official later said investigators had no indication so far that the suspect in the attack at the Grafing Bahnhof station, around 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) east of Munich, had an Islamic extremist motive.
A police spokesperson said that a “political motive” had certainly not been ruled out.
Mayor of Grafing, Angelika Obermayr, condemned today’s attack.
“But that this could happen right here, that is absolutely unthinkable”, she said.
The 56-year-old victim who died was attacked on or near the train, as was a second victim. A man has been arrested.
One man has been killed and three injured in a knife attack near Munich that police said appeared to have an Islamist motive.
In the attack, he stabbed one man on the platform, another on a stopped train, then ran outside the station to slash two more men on bicycles.
The police spokesman said, “a political background can not be ruled out”, adding that the man arrested was “not very cooperative”. Police said one person has died in a hospital after the stabbing.
Prosecutor Ken Heidenreich told a news conference that the suspect’s statements were inconsistent and that they are doubtful as to whether he can be held criminally responsible, suggesting he may not be mentally fit to stand trial.
The Telegraph also reported one of Germany’s leading terrorism experts said the suspect had been participating in treatment for his drug addiction.
The man had previously spent time in jail for membership of a banned extremist group and had been convicted in 2008 of planning an attack in Berlin against former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi.
Sleepy Grafing station, the scene of the attack, is part of the Munich S-Bahn network of commuter trains. He gave no details, saying it was a matter for the investigation.
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Police at the crime scene in Grafing station.
