Police shoot dead a man armed with knives in a western German city

Police fatally shot a man who apparently threatened passersby on a street in western Germany earlier today after he tried to attack officers with two knives, authorities say.

The incident took place around 2.45 p.m. local time in Moers, near the larger cities of Duisburg and Duesseldorf. Police say a patrol was sent to look into reports of an unknown man having assaulted and threatened several people.

When officers located the man, he attacked them with two knives, according to a police statement. Officers fired at the 26-year-old German, and he was fatally wounded. No other people were harmed, police say.

On Friday evening, three people were killed and eight wounded in a knife attack at a street festival in Solingen, a city in the same region. A suspected Islamic extremist from Syria turned himself in to police a day later. Prosecutors say he was motivated by the ideology of the Islamic State group.

In response to the Solingen attack, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged Monday to toughen knife laws and step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.