The 5,000-strong community of Illerkirchberg is in shock. After the attack from two girls who were on their way to school, a 27-year-old is suspected. He is said to have attacked the two with a knife, whereupon one of the girls dies.
A man is said to have attacked two girls on the way to school in Illerkirchberg near Ulm with a knife and injured them so badly that a 14-year-old died. The two victims were taken to a hospital on Monday, police said. The student succumbed to her injuries there. The second girl is 13 years old. The alleged attacker is a 27-year-old, according to police and prosecutors. The asylum seeker from Eritrea was injured and under police guard in a clinic. According to the information, officers had found a knife on him that could be the murder weapon.
The suspect attacked the girls around 7:30 a.m. on the street in a residential area, a police spokesman said. "The 14-year-old had to be resuscitated at the scene after the attack before being taken to the hospital, where she died despite all medical efforts," the investigators said. An autopsy of the body should provide clues as to the exact cause of death. The 13-year-old was seriously but not fatally injured.
According to the information, the attacker came from a neighboring accommodation for asylum seekers and fled there again after the crime. When the police searched it with special forces, they found three residents. While the injured 27-year-old was taken to the hospital, the officers took the other two men to the office. Prosecutors and police now want to determine what could be behind the attack on the two girls and whether the suspect and the young people knew each other beforehand.
In the statement, the police asked "not to have any general suspicion against strangers, those seeking protection or asylum seekers or to encourage or support such suspicions".
Illerkirchberg is a municipality in the south of Ulm. It is in the Alb-Donau district, right on the border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Almost 5000 people lived here at the end of 2021.
The "SWR" quoted Mayor Markus Häußler that the community was in shock. The affected families will be supported. According to the "Südwest Presse" he had been at the crime scene all morning. "It's terrible," he told the local newspaper.
The Baden-Württemberg Minister of Education Theresa Schopper from the Greens said: "I'm stunned." The act was "absolutely terrible and shocked me deeply. My thoughts are with the families and relatives". The Baden-Württemberg CDU parliamentary group leader Manuel Hagel made a similar statement via Twitter. The horrible act must be cleared up as soon as possible.
The emergency services cordoned off the crime scene itself after the incident with red and white striped warning tape. People in full-body protective suits were on site to secure evidence. In the end, markings remained on the ground and on a wall along the road.
