BERLIN
\nGerman police said they shot and wounded a man armed with a knife who attacked a right-wing demonstration in the southwestern city of Mannheim on Friday.
\nSocial media footage showed a bearded man in glasses attacking people in the city\u2019s central Marktplatz square with a knife. One person appears to be stabbed in the leg and a policeman who tries to intervene appears to be cut in the neck. Another policeman then shoots the attacker.
\n\u201cA firearm was used against the attacker,\u201d Mannheim police said in a statement. A rescue helicopter was in attendance.
\nNo information was available on the identity or motives of the attacker and police said they could not yet give details about any injuries among the demonstrators in the square.
\n\u201cMy thoughts are especially with the seriously injured police officer,\u201d said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a social media post.
\nA livestream broadcast from central Mannheim showed anti-Islam activist Michael Stuerzenberger preparing to address a small crowd at an event put on by the anti-Islam Pax Europa Movement.
\nThe footage bore a watermark linked to the movement\u2019s \u201cOpen Eyes\u201d tour.
\nThe violence comes in the final stretch of a European parliament campaign in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party has campaigned partially on what the party says is the danger posed by migration from Muslim countries.
\n\u201cIf investigations show an Islamist motive behind the attack, that would be yet another confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist violence, which we have been warning about,\u201d Faeser, a Social Democrat, added.
\n\u201cThe attacker must be punished severely,\u201d added Chancellor Olaf Scholz in another post.
\nStuerzenberger, 59, who describes himself as an Islam-critical journalist, has been a member of several far-right anti-Islam organizations, including the PEGIDA movement that holds regular marches in cities especially in eastern Germany.
\nPolice said there was no longer any immediate danger to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN German police said they shot and wounded a man armed with a knife who attacked a right-wing demonstration in the southwestern city of Mannheim on Friday. Social media footage showed a bearded man in glasses attacking people in the city\u2019s central Marktplatz square with a knife. One person appears to be stabbed in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-410083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n