Students in Germany overpowered a man suspected of stabbing several people at Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences in the northwestern German city of Hamm, police said Friday.
According to the report, Four people were injured in the incident, three women and one man, some of them seriously, said police. A 34-year-old male suspect was detained.
“Hamm Police has a major operation ongoing in the area of the Hamm-Lippstadt University. Several people were injured with a knife. The perpetrator has been detained. We are at the scene in numbers and ask you to avoid this area,” Hamm police said on their official Twitter account Friday.
The situation at Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences in the northwestern German city of Hamm was later declared safe following the incident.
A spokesperson for the Dortmund Police Department said it was unclear if the suspect is affiliated with the university.
According to the report by Anews, there are indications that the alleged perpetrator is mentally ill and he is therefore to be examined by a psychiatrist on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Dortmund public prosecutor’s office told dpa on Friday evening. There were no signs of a political background to the crime or any accomplices.
Three men and one woman were injured in the attack on Friday afternoon, some of them seriously. The woman had undergone emergency surgery and was in acute danger of death, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The attacker had been living in a student dormitory and his accommodation had been searched.
Police earlier said it appeared the man had entered the university building and attacked people in the corridors. He then headed for a larger lecture hall, where he was overpowered by students and held until police officers arrested him.
After calling on the public to avoid the area, police wrote on Twitter that the area was secure and that many officers were on site.
The university opened the cafeteria for shocked students, offering free drinks and chaplains. The aim was “to provide the best possible support for the students,” university chancellor Sandra Schlösser told a local newspaper, Westfälischer Anzeiger.
The Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences has existed since 2009. It has 5,600 students across two campuses in Hamm and Lippstadt, both in west Germany. The campus in Hamm is located in the east of the city.