A far-right politician was stabbed in a German city on Tuesday night just days after a police officer was killed in the same place.
Heinrich Koch, a local council candidate for Alternative for Germany (AfD), was attacked with a knife in Mannheim after he confronted someone pulling posters down in the city centre.
AfD state chairman Markus Frohnmaier said the party was “shocked and dismayed” over the stabbing, which left Mr Koch hospitalised.
It comes just days after a 29-year-old police officer was killed in a different stabbing during an anti-Islam demonstration in the same city.
A 25-year-old man is accused of rampaging through an anti-Islam rally held by Pax Europa on Friday last week before attacking the officer with a knife.
The officer was placed in an artificial coma but succumbed to his injuries on Sunday after being kept alive by a heart-lung machine. He reportedly donated his organs and had his parents as well as his partner by his side when he died, according to local reports.
The suspect, from Afghanistan, was shot and wounded by another officer. He remained hospitalised and a judge has ordered him held on suspicion of attempted murder.
Police and prosecutors have not provided a motive for the attack, saying the suspect was not in a condition to be questioned.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser called Islamist extremism a “great danger”.
“I would like to thank the police officers who intervened immediately and the doctors and paramedics who are fighting for the lives of the victims of this terrible crime,” said the minister.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, posting on X, said images of the attack were “terrible” and his thoughts were with the victims.
“Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy. The perpetrator must be severely punished,” he said.
