Illerkirchberg near Ulm
Fatal attack on girls: 27-year-old is said to have stabbed with a knife
After an attack on two 13- and 14-year-old schoolgirls on Monday in Illerkirchberg in Baden-Württemberg, the 14-year-old girl succumbed to her serious injuries. That is what the police said. The 13-year-old is still in hospital with serious injuries. According to the investigators’ initial findings, a man had attacked the two students on the way to school in the morning and then fled. Police spokesman Wolfgang Jürgens: “During the initial investigation, we found out that the alleged perpetrator had fled to a neighboring house. We entered this house and took three people with us. They are now with the criminal police. And now the investigation is underway at full speed to determine what actually happened and what the background is and who is responsible for it.” According to the police, there were no further findings. Illerkirchberg is a community with about 5000 inhabitants in the Alb-Donau-Kreis, south of Ulm.
A 27-year-old is said to have attacked two girls aged 13 and 14 with a knife in Illerkirchberg near Ulm, fatally injuring one of them. The police are just beginning their investigation into the murder.
The town of Illerkirchberg near Ulm has been shaken to the core. After two girls aged 13 and 14 were attacked on their way to school on Monday morning and the older of the two was fatally injured, the public prosecutor’s office and police in Ulm announced the first results of the investigation.
According to this, witnesses called the police around 7.30 a.m. because a man had attacked the two students. “The 14-year-old had to be resuscitated at the scene after the attack before being taken to the hospital, where she died despite all medical efforts,” authorities said. (Read more here). According to the information, the 13-year-old was also treated in the hospital, but was not in mortal danger. According to the police, both victims are German nationals.
Attackers from Illerkirchberg came from refugee accommodation
The attacker had come from the local refugee accommodation in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene before the crime and then fled back there, according to the investigators. The police searched the building with a special task force and arrested three residents from Eritrea.
Four people killed
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She assumes that a 27-year-old attacked the two girls with a knife. The suspected murder weapon was seized. It is not yet known what role the other two arrested persons might have played. The main suspect had been taken to a hospital because of his own injuries and was being guarded by the police there, it said. The three men were to be questioned, and the bodies of the dead youths were to be autopsied. The police and public prosecutor’s office have not yet given any information on a possible motive for the bloody deed. The authorities also initially said nothing about possible criminal records and the residence status of the suspects.
A reporter from the DPA news agency learned that there were frequent problems with the residents of the accommodation.
Police warn of general suspicion
The mayor of Illerkirchberg was shocked. The community with its almost 5,000 inhabitants is in shock, says Markus Häußler on Südwestrundfunk. The affected families will be supported. A 72-year-old resident told the DPA, “This is awful.” Other people laid flowers and lit candles near the crime scene.
Mourners laid flowers and lit candles in Illerkirchberg
© Bernd Weißbrod / DPA
The police stressed that they were aware that “events of this nature stir up fears and emotions”. She asked “not to have any general suspicion against strangers, those seeking protection or asylum seekers in general or to encourage or support such suspicions”.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also spoke up on Monday evening and expressed her sympathy. “I mourn the girl who was killed and sincerely hope that the injured girl will recover,” wrote the SPD politician on Twitter. “My thoughts are with their families at this time. The police are investigating all the backgrounds at high pressure.”
A few years ago, the place in the Alb-Donau district was the scene of a serious crime: in 2019, a 14-year-old girl was raped several times in another refugee accommodation. Four men were sentenced to prison terms of two years and three months and two years and two months by the Ulm district court in March 2021, as the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” reported at the time.
Editor’s note: Additional information was added to this article after it was first published.
Sources: Police headquarters and public prosecutor’s office in Ulm, Südwestrundfunk, Nancy Faeser on Twitter, “Stuttgart Newspaper”DPA news agency