2024-09-12 09:55:28
A man attacks a police station with a machete. Investigators now suspect an Islamist motive – the man shouted “Allahu Akbar” several times.
According to investigators, the attack on a police station in Linz in Rhineland-Palatinate by a man armed with a machete was motivated by Islamist tendencies. This was announced by the Koblenz Public Prosecutor’s Office. The man was able to be overpowered and no police officers were injured.
According to investigators, the 29-year-old, armed with a machete and a knife, appeared at the police station at 2:40 a.m. He repeatedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) and announced that he wanted to kill police officers. The officers then sealed off the entrance door and the door to the inner courtyard of the police station so that the man could not escape.
Special forces arrested the suspect in the sealed security gate. They incapacitated him with an electric shock from a taser. The 29-year-old was slightly injured.
During a search of an apartment, a flag of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” was found drawn on the wall. Due to the indications of a radical Islamic motive, the Rhineland-Palatinate State Central Office for Combating Terrorism and Extremism at the Koblenz Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation.
According to the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), the man is an Albanian citizen. He will now be brought before a judge who will decide whether he should be remanded in custody.
Linz am Rhein is a city in the district of Neuwied in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, not far from the state border with North Rhine-Westphalia.
On Thursday, an 18-year-old Austrian was killed by police in an attack on the Israeli Consulate General in Munich. Austrian authorities had investigated the man on suspicion that he might have become religiously radicalized. The man, who has Bosnian roots, was also banned from carrying weapons, which would not have expired until 2028 at the earliest, according to Salzburg police.