AT least two people are dead and five have been wounded after a knifeman attacked passengers and staff on board a train in Germany.
The horror attack took place on board a train between the northern German cities of Hamburg and Kiel.
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An enormous police and emergency service operation has been launched in the town of Brokstedt, 30 miles north of Hamburg.
RTL News quoted a federal police spokesman as saying multiple passengers were dead.
One eyewitness said he saw blood traces in multiple carriages.
Another man at Brokstedt station said that his daughter called him from the train saying that she and other passengers had to leave the train “because someone stabbed them with a knife”.
The regional train was travelling between the two cities when the knifeman started attacking passengers, seemingly at random.
Bild has confirmed that two people have been killed and that the attacker also tried to take his own life.
A police spokesman told BILD: “A traveller stabbed himself on the journey from Kiel to Hamburg in the regional express, injuring at least five people and injuring two people.”
The train has been evacuated following the attack shortly after 3pm local time (2pm GMT).
An eyewitness told German news site KN-online that people in his carriage panicked after three girls rushed in and reported that a man with a knife was on the train.
So far, the suspect’s motives are unknown and Brokstedt train station remains cordoned off.
The conditions of the five injured are unknown.
Interior minister for the Schleswig-Holstein state, Sabine Sutterlin-Waack, told reporters: “It’s really terrible. We’re really shocked and appalled that something like this happened.”
Police have arrested one man over the attacks.
The German train company Deutsche Bahn confirmed that the route between Brockstedt and the town of Wirst has been closed off and a rail replacement service is running.
