At the beginning of September, a man in Ansbach had attacked a 17-year-old with two butcher knives, allegedly shouting "Allahu Akbar" several times. Afterwards he was killed with shots from police service pistols. Now investigations are underway because of a possible terrorist background.
More than three months after the fatal shooting of a knife attacker in Ansbach in central Franconia, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating a possible terrorist background. A spokesperson for the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism did not want to give details on Tuesday because of the ongoing investigations. Earlier, the newspaper “Nürnberger Nachrichten”/”Nürnberger Zeitung” had reported on this.
At the beginning of September, a 30-year-old Afghan had attacked a 17-year-old with two butcher knives near the Ansbach railway station. A 20-year-old pushed the attacker away. Afterwards, the 30-year-old attacked the police officers who had rushed to the scene and killed him with shots from their service pistols. According to witnesses, the perpetrator had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (” Allah is great”) several times.
At that time, the investigators had not seen any further indications of a possible terrorist background. However, since this could not be ruled out, the public prosecutor’s office had taken over the investigation, the spokesperson said.
According to the police, the Afghan had arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker, but his application had been rejected. The tolerated status was supposed to expire within a week. Previously, the man had been involved in minor criminal offences. During the search of his flats, the investigators had found antidepressants.
