It is Monday morning, 7.30 a.m. in a residential area in a small community near Ulm: two girls, 13 and 14, are on their way to school when a man attacks them. The 14-year-old did not survive the attack, and in the afternoon a police spokesman confirmed that she succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
The crime happened in the Oberkirchberg district of the 5,000-inhabitant town of Illerkirchberg in the Alb-Donau district. The alleged perpetrator is said to have fled to a neighboring apartment building after the attack, where the police arrested three people in the morning. She assumes that the perpetrator is among them. The police were at the scene with a special task force.
A passer-by is said to have alerted the police and emergency services. It is currently unclear whether a weapon was involved in the attack. Media reports that the children were said to have been attacked with a knife were confirmed by the police spokesman SZ Not. The 13-year-old is still in the hospital.
The police spokesman also denied that the crime was related to a neighboring elementary school. The two girls are no longer of primary school age. According to media reports, they were on their way to the school bus to go to a secondary school.
The SWR quotes an eyewitnesswho claims to have heard noises near a traffic light. “There was the girl bleeding on the floor with a huge stab wound in her stomach. A second had injuries below her chest, a stab wound. It was completely dissolved.” The police have not yet confirmed this account.
After the attack, the community of Illerkirchberg is bewildered. The community is in shock, said Mayor Markus Häußler. The affected families will be supported.
It is currently unclear whether there is a connection between the suspect and the two victims. The officers wanted to question those arrested. The police did not say who it was specifically. Whether the alleged perpetrator lives in the house to which he fled and whether he knows the other people is also part of the pending investigation. The same applies to a possible motive of the attacker.
The SEK has since withdrawn, there is no danger to the population, said the police spokesman.