IS flag found in German home of Afghan train attacker

A hand-painted flag of the Islamic State group has been found among the belongings of the 17-year-old Afghan refugee who attacked train passengers with an ax and a knife, authorities said on Tuesday.

The flag was found in the room of the man who seriously wounded four people and injured several others on a regional train in the city of Wuerzburg, Bavaria state interior minister Joachim Herrmann told ZDF public television.

The teenager was shot dead by police as he tried to flee.

Earlier, Herrmann had said the assailant had arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Germany and had lived at first in a shelter and then more recently with a foster family in nearby Ochsenfurt.

A spokesman for the interior ministry had said it was “quite probable that this was an Islamist attack,” adding that the teenage assailant had shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is great in Arabic).

However he stressed that the investigation was ongoing and that the teenager appeared to have acted alone.

The attack happened around 9:15 p.m. (1915 GMT) on Monday on the train running between Treuchlingen and Wuerzburg in Bavaria.

Germany let in a record nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, with Syrians the largest group followed by Afghans fleeing ongoing turmoil and poverty in their country.

Hong Kong officials on Tuesday said that four members of a family from the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city were hurt in the attack.

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that the family members hurt included the 62-year-old father, 58-year-old mother, 27-year-old daughter and her 31-year-old boyfriend.

A fifth family member, a 17-year-old son, was not hurt. The paper did not cite its source.

Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying, condemned the attack and extended his sympathies to the victims and their families.

A statement from his office said that representatives from Hong Kong’s office in Berlin were visiting the injured Hong Kong residents.