At least 18 injured in Hamburg railway station knife attack; perpetrator detained

Hamburg Police say at least 18 people have been injured in a knife attack at the main railway station of the city.

The attack took place on Friday and was perpetrated by a 39-year-old German woman who, according to the police, was arrested after a major operation. The woman remains in police custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Saturday.

Emergency responders initially had reported 8 casualties, but as the operation to help the injured continued, it became clear that at least 18 people had been wounded.

Three people were in critical condition and 6 were seriously injured. These 9 people had to be taken to the hospital. The rest suffered minor wounds and were treated on the spot, the emergency responders said.

"So far, we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation," said Hamburg police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth.

"Rather, we have findings based on which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress," Abbenseth added.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a post on the social media platform X that “the news from Hamburg was shocking … my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

Hamburg’s Central Railway Station is the busiest of its kind in Germany. More than 550,000 travelers pass through the station per day, according to the city’s website.

In recent years, Germany has faced rising rates of car ramming and knife crimes. In January, a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were killed in a stabbing in a park in Aschaffenburg, and several others were wounded.

Last December, six people were killed and hundreds were injured after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

Several high-profile incidents perpetrated by immigrants and asylum seekers created significant political and social tension in Germany, with right-wing political parties such as Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) using fear tactics to gain substantial support among conservative voters.

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