Vernal45
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Posted on Sun, Apr. 03, 2005
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One person killed in German sword attack
OLIVER SCHMALE
Associated Press
STUTTGART, Germany - 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.
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 neighbor 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.
Tamils are a predominantly Hindu minority in Sri Lanka and southern India. A local Tamil group regularly rented the Stuttgart church to hold its services.
Click here to find out more!
One person killed in German sword attack
OLIVER SCHMALE
Associated Press
STUTTGART, Germany - 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.
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 neighbor 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.
Tamils are a predominantly Hindu minority in Sri Lanka and southern India. A local Tamil group regularly rented the Stuttgart church to hold its services.
