Police officer dies after attack on anti-Islam rally in Germany: Police

A 29-year-old police officer died on Sunday after being stabbed multiple times in an attack at an anti-Islam rally in Germany.

A man armed with a knife attacked and injured several people on the market square in Mannheim on Friday.

The attack injured five participants in a rally organized by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.

The police officer was injured “multiple times in the head area” while trying to intervene, local police said in a statement.

Immediately after the attack, he was “undergoing emergency surgery and placed in an artificial coma,” but he “died of his injuries” on Sunday, police said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his “deep sadness” over the death of the police officer after the “terrible attack”.

“His commitment to the safety of all of us deserves the highest recognition,” Scholz said on X, formerly Twitter.

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the Bild newspaper that the police officer’s death “moves me deeply and makes me angry about what is happening in our country.”

“We must resolutely defend ourselves against Islamist terrorism and will also strengthen the security authorities financially,” said Lindner.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called on Friday for a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack.

“If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, this would be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence,” it said in a statement.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks. The head of the German domestic intelligence service warned that the risk of such attacks was “real and higher than it has been for a long time.”

In addition, the country has seen a spate of attacks on politicians at work or during the election campaign ahead of the EU elections on 9 June.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed concern last week about the growing trend and said that Germans should “never get used to violence in the battle of political opinions”.

Sea/rlp