Victims of a knife attack Friday night in Hamburg, Germany, were in stable condition, the local police said on Saturday as they continued to investigate the motive of the woman who they said stabbed 18 people at the city’s central train station during Friday’s rush hour.
Over the course of just a few minutes, the knife attack injured 18 people aged 19 to 85, according to an updated list supplied by the Hamburg police on Saturday. Four of those victims — three women and a man — had sustained life-threatening injuries and were hospitalized.
The police said on Friday that they suspected that the woman was in a state of mental distress during the attack. On Saturday, a Hamburg judge will decide whether to admit her into a closed psychiatric ward.
The police said the 39-year-old German woman, whom they detained with the help of two commuters just after the stabbing spree, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the attack. They also said they believed the attack was not politically motivated.
With more than half a million people passing through every day, Hamburg’s central train station is Germany’s busiest and also one of its most dangerous, according to crime figures.
The city established a weapons-free zone several years ago to make it safer. That designation gives the police more power to conduct body searches and expel potential troublemakers from the site.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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