Prosecutors: Signs of mental illness in Berlin school attack

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Thursday that a man who seriously wounded two young girls in an attack at a school in Berlin may have been suffering from a drug-induced psychological illness.

Prosecutors said they were asking a court to have the 38-year-old suspect held in a psychiatric hospital pending further investigation. The man, who was arrested by officers at the scene, is being investigated for attempted homicide and serious bodily harm.

“There are no indications as to the suspect’s motive, but signs of a psychological illness possibly induced by narcotics are said to be present,” prosecutors wrote in a statement.

Prosecutors said the man had admitted carrying out the attack at the private Protestant School in Berlin’s Neukoelln district Wednesday afternoon, in which he stabbed two students aged 7 and 8 with a kitchen knife.

Both children remain hospitalized with serious injuries. Prosecutors say the older child’s condition is stable and no longer acutely life-threatening.

The school’s principal, Thorsten Knauer-Huckauf, said the suspect was not a member of the school community. He said students, staff and parents were “deeply affected and shocked” by the attack.