Attack in Hamm University: Woman dies after a knife attack

A man stabs himself with a knife at the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Attack in Hamm University: Woman dies after a knife attack

A man stabs himself with a knife at the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences. A 30-year-old was seriously injured. Now the public prosecutor announces that the woman has succumbed to her injuries.

After the knife attack at Hamm University by a suspected mentally ill man, one of the victims died. The 30-year-old lecturer from Essen succumbed to her injuries in the late afternoon on Saturday, the Dortmund public prosecutor announced.

A 34-year-old man stabbed himself with a knife in a lecture hall at Hamm-Lippstadt University on Friday afternoon. A man and a woman were slightly injured, two other women were seriously injured, including the now deceased. The police spoke of an "amoktat".

The perpetrator was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on Saturday. After a psychiatric report, the investigators assume that the student was fully or partially incapable of doing the crime. Prosecutor Henner Kruse said he suffered from fear of persecution and delusions. He believed those attacked to be members of a group that was trying to kill him. Only two days earlier he had attempted suicide and had therefore come to a psychiatric clinic. He released himself there on Friday afternoon.

The suspect is said to have first stabbed the students in the foyer of the university. In a lecture hall where a lecture was being held in front of around 100 people, the German then attacked the 30-year-old. He was overwhelmed by the participants of the event and was arrested by the police a little later. All four victims are accidental victims. The murder weapons, two kitchen knives, were bought by the man shortly before the crime. There are no indications of a political or religious background to the crime, it said. Will be determined because of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm, said Kruse.

"He went into the technical college to kill the people who were trying to kill him," Kruse outlined the perpetrator's possible perspective. There is no evidence of a political or religious background to the crime. Investigated for attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm. The man confessed to the crime.

The perpetrator had no criminal record, but was known to the Hamm police. At the beginning of April he filed a complaint because he felt persecuted, said Hamm's police chief Thomas Kubera. At the time, he was very open about his mental illness. There was then also a so-called risk assessment. A danger to oneself and others was ruled out at the time.