Somali knifeman yelled Allahu Akbar killing three people and wounded six more in the latest German street rampage

A Somali knifeman yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ before killing three people and wounding six more in a street rampage before German police arrested him alive, according to local reports.

Police identified the suspect, who was wearing a face mask and is now being questioned in a hospital, as a 24-year-old Somali man living in Wurzburg, Germany. His life was not in danger from his gunshot wound, a spokeswoman said.

The force said multiple people had been killed and injured, but did not give details. There has been no word yet on the possible motive for the attack.

Bavaria’s top security official Joachim Herrmann confirmed five people are in a serious condition and it is ‘not certain’ if they will live.

A witness reported that the knifeman shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before the attack, he added. But a police spokesperson said none of the suspect’s previous offences were linked to terrorism.

Videos posted on social media showed pedestrians surrounding the attacker and holding him at bay with chairs and sticks at Barbarossaplatz in Wurzburg on Friday.

A woman who said she had witnessed the incident told German RTL television that the police then stepped in.

Julia Runze said: ‘He had a really big knife with him and was attacking people. Then many people tried to throw chairs or umbrellas or cellphones at him and stop him.’

‘The police then approached him and I think a shot was fired, you could hear that clearly.’

‘The attacker was overpowered after police used a firearm,’ Lower Franconia police said on Twitter. ‘There are no indications of a second suspect. There is NO danger to the population.’

Police spokeswoman Kerstin Kunick said officers were alerted at around 5pm to a knife attack in Barbarossa Square in the centre of the city.

Bavaria’s governor Markus Soeder expressed shock at the news of the attack. ‘We grieve with the victims and their families,’ he wrote on Twitter.

Police said on Twitter that there was no danger to the population.

Bavaria’s top security official Joachim Herrmann was on his way to Wurzburg, a city of about 130,000 people located between Munich and Frankfurt.

Local media earlier reported multiple stabbings in Wurzburg, a city of some 130,000 people south-east of Frankfurt.

Police had sealed off parts of the city centre for a ‘major operation’ on Friday afternoon and asked residents to stay away.

Footage of the incident posted online showed barefoot attacker wielding a long knife in Barbarossaplatz.

A second man, armed with a bag, can be seen circling the knifeman and shouting at him.

He then disappears off screen as the suspect hurls the knifeman towards him. Several bystanders than intervene.

Another video posted on social media appeared to show blood on the ground.

The clips matched the reported location of the attacks on and around Wuerzburg’s central Barbarossaplatz, though it was not immediately possible to confirm when they had been made.

The knifeman was overwhelmed by police after being shot in the leg. He was taken into custody.

Several victims were treated by emergency services. No information on their condition was released.

Source: Daily Mail