In the afternoon, two seven- and eight-year-old girls were injured by an attacker in a schoolyard in Berlin-Neukölln. One of them is life-threatening, the other seriously injured, said a police spokeswoman.
The injured children were taken to a hospital. The 39-year-old alleged perpetrator was arrested near the scene of the crime, the police said. He is said to have injured the children with a knife and then waited for the officers at the crime scene. A homicide detective is investigating. The newspaper BZ reported the suspect was said to have had no relation to his victims. Nothing was known about a motive.
According to the police, the act happened in the courtyard of the elementary school, which belongs to the Neukölln Evangelical School on Mainzer Straße. According to its own statements, the school combines a primary school with an integrated secondary school and a high school. Children in grades 1 to 13 attend the school, which is sponsored by the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia.
The school was evacuated after the crime and the area cordoned off by officers with warning tape. An area in the schoolyard was also cordoned off. In the afternoon, several ambulances, police cars and police officers in helmets stood on and in front of the school grounds. Parents picked up their children from the elementary school after-school care center, reported a dpa reporter.
Berlin’s Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) was deeply shocked. “I’m deeply shocked,” she wrote on Twitter, expressing her condolences to the children, their families and classmates. The district mayor of Berlin-Neukölln, Martin Hikel (SPD), was “deeply concerned”. He wrote on Facebook: “For now my thoughts are with the two injured children and the many who saw what happened.”
Berlin’s Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) drove to the affected school after the attack to find out about the situation on site. “My thoughts are with the injured children and their families,” said Günther-Wünsch, according to the Senate Department for Education. “Now it is important to clarify the incident and wait for the police investigation.”