German officials, residents attend commemoration of 2 people killed in knife attack

BERLIN (AP) — Government officials and local residents attended a solemn Mass Sunday to honor a child and a man killed in a knife attack in Germany, an assault that amplified the debate about migration ahead of the Feb. 23 general election.

The ecumenical religious service at the Catholic Basilica of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, was briefly suspended for the tolling of the city’s bells at the exact time that the attack took place on Wednesday, 11:45 a.m.

Bavaria governor Markus Söder, Aschaffenburg Mayor Jürgen Herzing and Muslim imam Zischan Mehmood addressed the congregation that included rescuers, to express grief and disbelief at the loss of lives. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was also present.

“Compassion, solidarity and cohesion are more important than ever, because there are many dividers and agitators around us,” Mehmood told the people gathered in and outside the church. “We must never allow grief and pain to tear us apart.”

Söder said the attack was a “senseless, brutal and disturbing crime.”

“Good and evil are not a question of origin, nationality, ethnicity or faith,” Söder said, and stressed that the killings should not lead to divisions because “incitement is the wrong answer.”

Before attending the service, Faeser and Söder laid wreaths at the site of the attack.

The attack is politically sensitive a month before Germany’s national election as migration policy is among the top campaign issues.

A 2-year-old boy of Moroccan origin, who was part of a group of kindergarten children, was killed, along with a 41-year-old German man who apparently intervened to protect the children in a city park. The arrested suspect is a 28-year-old former asylum-seeker from Afghanistan who had been told to leave Germany. Officials said he had received psychiatric treatment and there was no immediate indication that he was motivated by extremism.

He is being held in a psychiatric hospital, according to the German news agency, dpa.

Bavarian officials said two adults and a 2-year-old Syrian girl were also wounded in the attack and hospitalized but there was no danger to their lives.