Woman killed in machete attack in southwest Germany

Police say no link to terrorism after two others injured and Syrian arrested in Reutlingen

People watch the site in front of a fast food restaurant in Reutlingen, southwestern Germany where a Syrian asylum-seeker killed a woman and injured two people with a machete. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images

A 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a woman with a machete and injuring two other people in the southern German city of Reutlingen on Sunday, but the attack had no apparent connection to terrorism, police said.

The man had been involved in previous incidents causing injuries to other people, and was apparently acting alone, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman had no immediate information on when the man arrived in Germany, or when the previous incidents took place.

The man was arrested in Reutlingen south of Stuttgart.

“There is no danger to anyone else at this time,” he said.

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“Given the current evidence, there is no indication that this was a terrorist attack,” police said in a statement.

The man attacked two women and a man at around 4.30pm near the central bus station in Reutlingen, about 40km (25 miles) south of Stuttgart, according to a police statement.

One of the women later died of her wounds, it said. The tabloid Bild said the woman was pregnant.

"The attacker was completely out of his mind. He even ran after a police car with his machete," Bild quoted a witness as saying.

The witness told Bild a private motorist knocked down the attacker soon afterward and he was then taken into custody by police.

On Friday, an 18-year-old Iranian-German who was obsessed with mass killings shot dead nine people in Munich.

On July 18th, a 17-year-old who had sought asylum in Germany was shot dead by police after wounding four people from Hong Kong, some of them severely, with an axe on a train and injuring a local resident near the city of Würzburg.

Reuters