Two people including a two-year-old boy were killed and two others severely injured in a stabbing attack in Bavaria, German police said.
Police said a suspect was detained in the knife attack, which occurred in a park in the southern German town of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday.
Police told The Associated Press they did not immediately know the motive for the attack, because the investigation was still at an early stage.
Train services in the town were temporarily interrupted as the suspect tried to flee along the tracks, German news agency dpa reported.
However, he was quickly detained, police wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Police asked possible witnesses to come forward.
They said the second victim who was killed was a 41-year-old man and the suspect was an 28-year-old Afghan citizen.
They did not know the nationality of the two people who were killed or release any details about those injured.
They also declined to give details about how the attack took place.
The governor of Bavaria condemned the attack and called it “a terrible day for all of Bavaria”.
“We mourn the victims of a cowardly and despicable act. We mourn the loss of a small, innocent child who was fatally injured,” Markus Soder wrote on X.
“We mourn the loss of a helper who paid for his civil courage with his own life.”
“The circumstances of this inconceivable act must be fully clarified,” he added.
“But now is the time to pause for thought. It simply hurts. We pray for the victims and their families. We hope that all those injured recover quickly and fully.”
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser expressed her compassion for the families of the victims and vowed that “the investigation will shed light on the background to this terrible act of violence”.
“My thoughts and heartfelt sympathy are with the parents of the child who was killed, for whom there could be no more terrible news,” she said.
“My deepest sympathy also goes to the family of the man who lost his life as a result of this brutal act.”
