Germany saw two mass stabbings over the weekend at the hands of suspected migrants, leaving eight injured, including an 11-year-old girl.
Multicultural Germany has seen another spate of stabbings in which migrants from Kosovo and Syria are reportedly the suspected perpetrators.
On Sunday morning, five local football fans were injured, four seriously, after being attacked by a man with a knife and a cane sword “indiscriminately” outside a bar in the city of Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The victims, aged between 22 and 27, fought back against the assailant, resulting in him fleeing the scene. According to police, as the man fled, he left behind a bag containing multiple knives, a liquid that smelled of gasoline, and personal documents indicating Syrian nationality, broadcaster NTV reports.
The suspected attacker was arrested on Monday in the town of Heiligenhaus outside of Düsseldorf, according to Die Welt. He first entered the country after travelling through Turkey into Europe and applied for asylum in Germany in 2023. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees granted him temporary protected status, allowing him to remain in the country will his application was considered.
German daily Bild reported that the police are investigating the attack as a potential terror attack by the 35-year-old suspect.
Separately, three people, including an 11-year-old girl, were injured in a stabbing in another incident outside of an apartment block in the city of Halle in central Germany on Sunday.
The 11-year-old girl, a 47-year-old man, and a 29-year-old man were hospitalised after the attack, with the 29-year-old suffering serious injuries. According to witnesses, a dispute allegedly broke out about the noise made by children in the area.
A 46-year-old migrant man from Kosovo has reportedly been arrested in connection with the stabbing.
Responding to the attacks, Marc Bernhard, a member of Germany’s Bundestag parliament for the populist Alternative für Deutschland party, said on Monday that “even after 10 years of bloodshed, people are still talking about ‘isolated cases,’ citizens experience imported violence on the streets every day.”
“It’s high time for a clear turnaround: properly protect borders, consistently deport illegal immigrants, and finally make the security of its own population a priority again. Germany is on a knife-edge. Therefore: remigration now!” the AfD politician added.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz campaigned on a hardline approach to illegal immigration, claiming that he would shut down the border to those attempting to enter Germany illegally, even those claiming asylum at border stops. However, the plan has been walked back following pressure from countries like Poland, which have so far refused to cooperate with the measures.
There have also yet to be meaningful numbers of deportations to countries like Afghanistan and Syria, despite Merz’s vow to do so.
Germany has been facing an uptick in the number of terror attacks at the hands of migrants, with suspected migrant attacks occurring in Aschaffenburg, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Munich, and Solingen last year.