Suspected Islamist threatens German police with machete, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’

BERLIN — A 29-year-old Albanian man carrying a machete has attacked a German police station, with investigators probing a possible “radical Islamist motive.”

The man entered the station in the western town of Linz am Rhein, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Greatest”) and said he wanted to “kill police officers,” Koblenz prosecutors say.

Officers on site locked the entrance door and a door leading to the inner courtyard of the police station, leaving the man trapped.

Diesmal nicht #Mannheim nicht #München nicht #Bonn und auch nicht in #Solingen sondern in Linz am Rhein stürmt ein Macheten-Mann die Polizeiwache und wollte Polizisten umbringen… Durch einen Taser Einsatz des SEK konnte er festgenommen werden. pic.twitter.com/Khh2hEBAeA

— Bünyamin Yilmaz (@YlmzBnym) September 6, 2024

“The accused is said to have tried to open them by force… but was unsuccessful,” prosecutors add.

Special forces were alerted to the situation and neutralized the attacker using a taser.

During a search of his home, investigators find the emblem of the Islamic State group drawn on the wall.

The Albanian suspect remains under arrest and investigations are ongoing, according to prosecutors.

Germany has been hit by several such attacks in recent years, with the most deadly being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12 people. Three people were also killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival.

Yesterday, a man was shot dead by police after opening fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate.