Seven people were injured when an Algerian migrant went on a knifing rampage at an asylum center in Berlin Tuesday night.
According to police, the 21-year-old perpetrator got into an argument with a visitor and hit him as well as a security guard. The Algerian then fled the scene, but appeared in a courtyard of the asylum center where he punched and stabbed several residents.
The attack was treated by Berlin police as a “mass casualty event,” meaning a large deployment of law enforcement and paramedics, as well as a helicopter to transport the injured.
Two of the victims were admitted to hospital with stab wounds, one reportedly in life threatening condition, while another five were treated on an outpatient basis. Several of the injured are Moldovan.
The stabber was initially treated at the hospital as he complained of pains in the upper body. He was later taken into custody. A criminal investigation is ongoing.
The asylum center, which opened earlier this year, has space for 550 people in family accommodations and shared rooms.
As we have previously reported, the number of knife attacks in Germany has been on a troubling trajectory. According to Apollo News, almost 14,000 stabbings were committed last year, a rise of 1,500 incidents compared to the previous year—which, in effect, means 38 knife attacks per day.
Berlin’s police chief Barbara Slowik said in a June interview that most perpetrators of “violence in Berlin are young, male and have a non-German background. This also applies to knife violence.” Her counterpart in Bonn, Frank Hoever, told Junge Freiheit that while 40% of knife crime offenders are non-German, there are no figures on how many of the other 60% have dual citizenship. “ “People from other cultures have a different relationship to knives,” he said.
Support for resuming deportations to both Syria and Afghanistan has increased after a spate of violent knife attacks in recent months, and the murder of a policeman by an Afghan failed asylum seeker. However, despite the leftist-liberal government vowing to deport dangerous criminals, it hasn’t followed through with action.
Earlier this week, leftist activist Interior Minister Nancy Faeser suggested to tighten the ban on knives—prohibiting blades longer than 6 cm, down from the current 12—and increase the number of “no-knife zones.” Whether the measures will have anything but superficial impact is questionable, if reports from German cities are to be trusted.
Düsseldorf police, in response to a question by news outlet NiUs, reported that, in 2023, they seized 256 knives and responded to 35 violent knife crimes in the city’s “weapons-free” zone.