An Afghan man has been charged in connection with a deadly knife attack in Germany that left a police officer dead and several others wounded, authorities said Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency.
Prosecutors described the attack, which occurred in late May in Mannheim, as Islamist-inspired and alarming for the nation.
The incident unfolded shortly before a planned rally organized by Pax Europa, a group campaigning against radical Islam. According to federal prosecutors, the suspect, identified as Sulaiman A., harbors "sympathy" for the Islamic State (ISIS) group and "shares its ideology."
Armed with a large hunting knife, the attacker reportedly targeted individuals he considered "infidels" or unbelievers, prosecutors said, according to AFP.
"He pounced on a police officer who had rushed to the scene and stabbed him forcefully and deliberately in the head and upper body," the statement added. The officer succumbed to his severe injuries.
Several others were also injured in the assault, with some victims sustaining potentially life-threatening injuries, according to prosecutors.
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023.
In late October of that year, police in the western German city of Essen arrested a man who plotted to attack a pro-Israel demonstration.
In December, a 15-year-old boy was arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning a possible attack on a Christmas market.
Weeks later, German police arrested three people over an alleged attack plot targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year's Eve.
In late May, German authorities arrested two men suspected of plotting a knife attack on worshippers at a synagogue in the southwestern city of Heidelberg.
In another recent incident in August, three people were killed and eight were wounded in a knife attack at a street festival in Solingen, an attack which was later claimed by ISIS.