German office missed deadline to remove Hamburg attacker

BERLIN – Germany’s migration office says officials missed a deadline two years ago to deport the Palestinian man identified as the suspect who fatally stabbed one person and wounded six others at a Hamburg supermarket last week.

Ahmad A. arrived from Norway in early 2015. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees told news agency dpa Tuesday that in July 2015 the agency asked Norway to take him back. But the request was made one day after a deadline expired and Norway refused.

The office said it was dealing with a large volume of asylum-seekers at the time.

German officials say that before Friday’s supermarket attack, Ahmad A. had been co-operating with officials to try to get him new Palestinian papers so he could be deported.