Hamburg

Police say four victims face life-threatening injuries, suggest suspect may have have suffered a ‘psychological emergency’.

Authorities in Germany have arrested a woman after at least 17 people were injured in a knife attack at the main train station in the northern city of Hamburg.

At least four of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries in Friday evening’s mass stabbing incident, which took place in the middle of the city’s evening rush hour, emergency services said.

The suspect, a 39-year-old German woman, was arrested at the scene by law enforcement, a Hamburg police spokesperson said.

Officers “approached her, and the woman allowed herself to be arrested without resistance”, spokesman Florian Abbenseth told journalists in comments carried by public broadcaster ARD.

“We have no evidence so far that the woman may have had a political motive,” Abbenseth said.

“Rather, we have information, based on which we now want to investigate, whether she may have been experiencing a psychological emergency.”

The suspect was thought to have “acted alone”, Hamburg police said in a post on X.

Four of the victims have suffered life-threatening injuries, Hamburg’s fire department spokesman said, revising down an earlier figure.

The suspect was thought to have turned “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told the AFP news agency.

Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.

Four platforms at the station were closed while investigations were ongoing, and railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed his shock in a call with the mayor of Hamburg following the attack.

Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks that have put security at the top of the agenda.

The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld. The investigation into that attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors following the arrest of the suspect, who is from Syria.

Twelve people have been injured in a knife attack at the main railway station in the German city of Hamburg, local media is reporting.

Three of the victims are reportedly in critical condition, with three others seriously injured.

Police say they have arrested a suspect and a major operation is under way.

The attack is understood to have happened at Hamburg’s Central Station at around 18:00 local time (17:00 BST) on Friday.

A spokesman for the Hamburg fire department told AFP news agency that 12 people had been injured and that some of the injuries were life-threatening.

In a post on X, Hamburg Police said: “According to initial findings, a person allegedly injured several people with a knife in the main station.

“The suspect was arrested by police.”

Local media has reported that the attack happened near platforms 13 and 14 – which are accessible via a busy main road – while a train was on one of the platforms.

Some of the victims were treated inside trains, local media has reported.

Pictures from the scene show a number of emergency service personnel and vehicles on the ground, and barriers that seem to be hiding the injured from public view.

One photograph used on local media sites shows a man being taken away by paramedics on a stretcher.

Hamburg Central Station is one of Germany’s busiest transport hubs, with more than 550,000 travellers per day according to its website. It is often crowded during Friday rush hour.

This is the latest violent attack in Germany in recent months.