Four people were wounded on a high-speed train in southern Germany on Thursday when a fellow passenger attacked them with “dangerous objects”, police said.
A suspect was arrested following the incident on a train carrying around 500 passengers as it passed near the village of Strasskirchen, police for the Bavaria region said in a statement.
“At around 1:55 pm (1155 GMT) today a man on an ICE train travelling towards Vienna injured several people with dangerous objects,” the statement said.
Four people received “minor injuries”, it added.
The Bild daily reported that the main weapon used to attack passengers was “probably an axe”.
Passengers reportedly pulled the emergency brake, causing the train to come to a halt on an open stretch of track, it said.
Passengers then surrounded the attacker, who was seriously injured and taken to hospital by helicopter, it added.
Police spokesman Guenther Tomaschko told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk the suspect was a “20-year-old from Syria” but declined to comment on the possible motive.
Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “appalled” by the “violent attack” on the train, which had been travelling from Hamburg.
“Our thoughts and sympathy are with the injured and all those who are now coming to terms with what they have experienced,” a spokesman said.
bur-fec-sr/gv
© Agence France-Presse
