German police kill Afghan teen after train axe attack

TIL Desk/World/Berlin-German police have shot dead a 17-year-old Afghan refugee after he attacked train passengers with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people in what one official said was a “probable” Islamist attack. Several other people were also injured in the assault on a regional train near the southern city of Wuerzburg, police said, adding that the teenager was killed as he tried to flee.

Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of Bavaria state, said the assailant had arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Germany and was living nearby Ochsenfurt. “It is quite probable that this was an Islamist attack,” said a ministry spokesman, adding that the attacker had shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest).

The attack happened around 9:15 pm (1915 GMT) last night on the train, which runs between Treuchlingen and Wuerzburg in Bavaria. “Shortly after arriving at Wuerzburg, a man attacked passengers with an axe and a knife,” a police spokesman said.