4 Chinese injured in ax attack on train

Four Hong Kong citizens were injured, including two seriously, in a Monday ax-and-knife attack on a regional train near Wuerzburg in the southern German state of Bavaria, the Chinese Consulate General in Munich confirmed on Tuesday.

The four victims are from one family. A source said that the father was 62, the mother 58, the daughter in her twenties and the son 17. Accompanying the family was the daughter’s 31-year-old boyfriend who was severely injured in the attack as was the father.

A 17-year-old Afghan refugee wielding ax and knife wounded a total of five passengers on Monday night, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told German ZDF public television on Tuesday morning. Most victims were Chinese tourists, among whom two were critically wounded.

Witnesses said the interior of the train was covered with blood and looked “like a slaughterhouse”, the German news agency dpa reported. About 30 passengers were on the train at the time; more than a dozen were treated for shock.

The attacker jumped off the train after someone pulled the emergency cord and got about 500 meters away before the police special unit chased him. As police drew near, the assailant started attacking the officers and was shot.

The police reported finding a hand-painted Islamic State flag in the asylum seeker’s room.

The extremist group later claimed responsibility for the attack which was posted on the group’s Aamaq news agency on Tuesday.

Chinese Consulate General in Munich has released security bulletin for Chinese citizens advising them to be vigilant about their safety.

Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive Leung Chunying, condemned the attack and extended his sympathies to the victims and their families.

The mayor of Wuerzburg condemned the attack.

“I’m shocked by this horrible act of violence,” Christian Schuchardt said, adding that his thoughts were with the victims and other passengers “who have suffered severe injuries on their bodies and souls by this act of craziness”.

The attacker came to Germany two years ago as an unaccompanied minor, and applied for asylum in March of last year. He lived in a home for young refugees until two weeks ago when he was placed with a foster family in the Wuerzburg area. Investigators were talking to the foster family, witnesses and the attacker’s friends.