Man with a knife screaming Allahu akbar shot dead during police operation in Hamburg

In Hamburg, a man is said to have threatened people with a knife. Police took up arms after other means were ineffective. The state security department was called in because an extremist motivation cannot be ruled out.

A man was shot dead by officers on Friday during a police operation in Hamburg-Winterhude. The stranger had previously stopped cars, damaged them and threatened the drivers with a knife, said police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün.

Alerted police officers initially used pepper spray, while SEK officers who happened to arrive at the scene of the crime used a taser. Both did not work. The man continued to approach the officers with the knife in his hand and there he was shot. The attacker was seriously injured and died a short time later despite the use of an emergency doctor.

Possible extremist motivation: State security department on alert
"It is still unclear how often and by whom exactly the shot was taken," said Levgrün. According to several witnesses, the initially unidentified man uttered "Allahu akbar" (God is great), the police spokeswoman said. An extremist motivation for his behavior cannot be ruled out, which is why, in addition to the murder commission, the state security department of the state criminal investigation office was also involved in the investigation. As always in such cases, when police officers made use of the service weapon, the Internal Investigations Department (DIE) is also involved in the investigations.

The site of the event, which has been cordoned off, was to be examined in the evening with a 3D scanner in order to be able to reconstruct the course of the crime. Apart from the fatally injured man, whose identity was not initially established, no one was injured, says the police spokeswoman. Several cars were damaged by him.

Source: Welt