Hamburg knife attacker kills one in supermarket

The mayor said the attack had been motivated by hate but did not call it a terrorist incident

A failed asylum seeker born in the UAE attacked shoppers with a knife in a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, killing one person and injuring six.

Police said that the man was 26 years old but would not confirm his name.

Authorities said he had been seeking papers from the Palestinian Authority mission in Berlin. His deportation was delayed because he did not have documentation.

Witnesses said the attacker shouted “Allahu akbar” before being caught by passers-by while trying to flee the scene on Friday.

Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz said the attack had been motivated by hate but did not call it a terrorist incident.

“It makes me especially angry that the perpetrator appears to be a person who claimed protection in Germany and then turned his hate against us,” Mr Scholz said.

German news website Spiegel Online has identified the man as Ahmad A, reporting that he had contact with militants in Hamburg.

Last December, Tunisian Anis Amri killed 12 people and injured 48 after he drove a lorry into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market.

The Hamburg attack came less than two months before Germans go to the polls to elect members to the 19th Bundestag, the nation’s parliament.

It is likely to reignite the debate on German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than one million asylum seekers into the country in 2015.

Beatrix von Storch, of Alternative for Germany – an Islamophobic populist party that is expected to enter the parliament for the first time in September’s elections – used the attack to criticise Mrs Merkel’s immigration policy.

“Before Mrs Merkel tweets again that this is ‘beyond comprehension’, this has something to do with Islam. Comprehend that once and for all,” she posted on Twitter.