German police have shot and wounded a man armed with a knife who attacked a right-wing demonstration in the south-western city of Mannheim on Friday.
Social media footage showed a bearded man attacking people with a knife in the city’s central Marktplatz square, where an anti-Islam activist was preparing to address a small crowd.
One person appears to be stabbed in the leg in the footage, and a police officer who tries to intervene appears to be cut in the neck.
Another police officer then shoots the attacker.
No information was available on the identity or motives of the attacker and police said they could not yet give details about any injuries among the demonstrators in the square.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, said her thoughts were with the police officer, who she said was “seriously injured”.
“If investigations show an Islamist motive behind the attack, that would be yet another confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist violence, which we have been warning about,” she said on social media.
“The attacker must be punished severely,” added German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in another post.
A live stream broadcast from central Mannheim showed anti-Islam activist Michael Stuerzenberger preparing to speak before the attack took place.
The live stream footage bore a watermark linked to Mr Stuerzenberger’s Open Eyes anti-Islam campaigning tour.
The violence comes in the final stretch of a European parliament campaign in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has campaigned partially on what the party says is the danger posed by migration from Muslim countries.
Mr Stuerzenberger, 59, who describes himself as an Islam-critical journalist, has been a member of several far-right anti-Islam organisations, including the PEGIDA movement that holds regular marches in cities especially in eastern Germany.
There was no longer any immediate danger to the public following Friday’s incident, police said in a statement.
Reuters