BERLIN — Detectives launched a manhunt across the German capital Friday after a stabbing at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, two days before the country’s national elections.
An unidentified assailant fled the scene with his weapon after the attack at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe at 6 p.m. local time, police said.
One male victim was left with serious but non life-threatening injuries to his upper body. Six other people were traumatized after witnessing the attack and are now in the care of officers, they said.
Between 80 and 100 detectives and other officers are now scouring Berlin, according to Florian Nath, lead spokesperson for the city’s police department.
“We have a suspect at large who took the weapon that was used in the attack,” Nath told NBC News at the scene. “We are looking at every area in Berlin, deploying plainclothes officers and officers in uniform; foot patrols, car patrols and we’re looking for a possible suspect.”
In the run up to the election Germany has been hit with a spate of high-profile attacks, some of them by people with migrant backgrounds. It has given a heated atmosphere to the vote, particularly around the debate on immigration.
Though scholars say the crime rate in Germany is actually decreasing, the incidents have deeply shocked the country during the campaign. The far-right, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany party has pointed to these attacks to support its calls for a mass deportation scheme and restricted borders.
On a frigid evening in Berlin, dozens of emergency vehicles with blue lights flashing surrounded the memorial.
It was cordoned off with red and white tape backed up by a few dozen officers. One of the vehicles was a fire truck with a cherry picker casting light from around 50 feet onto the crime scene where detectives were investigating below.
At one point, two officers held up a large white sheet to obscure the view of the gathered media to the work investigators were conducting behind it.
