German police arrest suspect in Bielefeld stabbing attack
"The detailed work paid off and we were able to arrest the surprised perpetrator," the state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, told dpa news agency after a man was arrested late on Monday evening in the town of Heiligenhaus near Düsseldorf.
According to police, the suspect is a 35-year-old Syrian living in Germany.
Early on Sunday, five men between 22 and 27 — football fans celebrating their team, Arminia Bielefeld, securing the league title in the German third division — were attacked by a suspect wielding a sharp object outside a bar in downtown Bielefeld.
Four of the men were seriously injured.
According to witnesses, the perpetrator attacked his victims indiscriminately with what they called a bladed object.
Footage from the crime scene showed forensics securing a weapon — a walking cane with a retractable blade.
Other guests at the bar overpowered the man and inflicted facial injuries in the process.
He managed to break free and fled on foot, leaving a rucksack behind at the crime scene.
Investigators from the "Kurfürst" homicide squad, led by First Chief Inspector Markus Mertens, recovered the rucksack. According to police, it contained further knives.
Reul said that "after the shocking crime in Bielefeld" investigators had "picked up and pursued every last lead on the perpetrator" with all the resources available.
"Now we need answers as to what motive led the perpetrator to commit the crime," the minister added.
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