German policeman stabbed at anti-Islam rally dies of injuries
A 29-year-old police officer has died two days after being repeatedly stabbed at an anti-Islam rally in Germany.
A knife-wielding man attacked and wounded several people on Friday in the market square in the city of Mannheim in south-west Germany.
Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were wounded in the attack.
The policeman was “stabbed several times in the area of the head” while trying to intervene, local police said.
He underwent “emergency surgery and was put in an artificial coma”, but “died of his injuries” on Sunday, police said.
Olaf Scholz said he was “deeply saddened” by the death following the “terrible attack”.
“His commitment to the safety of all of us deserves the highest recognition,” the chancellor said on X, formerly Twitter.
Christian Lindner, the finance minister, told German daily Bild the death “moves me deeply and makes me angry about what is happening in our country”.
Germany on high alert
“We must defend ourselves against Islamist terrorism with determination, and we will also strengthen the security authorities financially,” he said.
Nancy Faeser, the interior minister, on Friday called for a thorough investigation into the attack.
“If the investigations reveal an Islamist motive, this would be a further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence,” she said.
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, with the country’s domestic intelligence chief warning that the risk of such assaults is “real and higher than it has been for a long time”.
The country had also seen a spate of attacks on politicians at work or on the campaign trail ahead of EU elections on June 9.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, said last week that he was worried by the growing trend and said Germans “must never get used to violence in the battle of political opinions”.
