Germany stabbing victims were all women: police

The victims of a fatal knife attack in Germany on Friday were all women, according to police. 

Three women were killed and five others were seriously injured after a 24-year-old man who is also a Somali immigrant attacked the women in Wuerzburg. The unnamed suspect was later shot in the leg and arrested by authorities, Reuters reported.

The attack began in a store when the attacker asked where the business kept its knives, regional police president Gerhard Kallert said.

He then stabbed and killed the saleswoman and two other people in the store before running out on the street and stabbing five more women as well as a child.

Police said the suspect has had multiple mental health problems since he came to Germany in 2015, according to Reuters.

Prosecutor Wolfgang Gruendler said he had previously been in a knife fight, was sent to psychiatry treatment twice and was registered in a homeless shelter.

Regional Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said authorities are investigating an Islamic motive for the attack as witnesses claim the attacker yelled “Allahu akbar” before the rampage.

“The indications of radicalisation, in this case Islamism, and of psychological problems do not necessarily rule one another out … this must be the subject of further investigation,” Herrmann said.

Police President Martin Wilhelm said two women have been released from the hospital with another still in critical condition.