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1 killed, 3 injured in sword attack at church in Germany
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-04 10:15

A man wielding a sword stormed into a Protestant church in southern Germany on Sunday, killing one person and injuring three, including a man whose hand was hacked off, police said.

Some 65 members of the local Tamil community, about half of them children, were in the middle of a service at the church in Stuttgart when the 25-year-old man attacked, police investigator Michael Kuehner said.

A German policeman stands next to the covered body of a woman killed when a man with a samurai sword ran amok during a service in an evangelical Methodist church in the southern city of Stuttgart.(AFP/DDP/Michael Latz)
A German policeman stands next to the covered body of a woman killed when a man with a samurai sword ran amok during a service in an evangelical Methodist church in the southern city of Stuttgart, Germany. [AFP]
He killed a 43-year-old woman and injured others who got in his way, including another woman who suffered life threatening injuries, and two men, one of whom lost a hand, Kuehner said.

A neighbour said she saw a woman covered in blood run screaming from the church and into the street before emergency crews reached her.

Police subdued the man with pepper spray before arresting him.

The suspect, a Tamil from Stuttgart, was motivated by "personal reasons" in the attack, Kuehner said, adding that the man had made unspecified threats before Easter.

The man entered the church Sunday afternoon wildly waving a sword, before going on the rampage, according to witness reports, police spokeswoman Sybille Ahlborn said.

A local Tamil group regularly rented the Stuttgart church to hold its services.



 
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