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CrimeGermany

Germany: Polish bus driver dies in Bavaria knife attack

July 6, 2021

Police say the driver died when a German man pulled a knife on Polish travelers in two buses taking a break in Hof, northern Bavaria.

https://p.dw.com/p/3w57A
Police tape at Hof railway station
Image: Stephan Fricke/picture alliance/dpa

A bus driver died in a knife attack in the Bavarian town of Hof, police said Tuesday.

The suspect fled the scene but was located by a mobile patrol, said a police spokesman.

What happened in the knife attack?

Police said the suspect pulled out a pocketknife as Poles traveling in two buses made a midnight break on the forecourt of the town's railway station. 

The 43-year-old suspect first attacked and slightly injured a passenger standing next to one of the buses as a dispute developed. 

The bus driver intervened and was then stabbed. He died on the spot despite the efforts of travelers and first responders. 

Investigators were due to interview some of the bus passengers who witnessed the attack, with translators assisting. 

The suspect hails from the adjacent eastern German state of Saxony, a major transit region for travelers from Poland. He was due to appear before magistrates on Tuesday.  

The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Archive photo showing East German border soldier removing motorway metal barriers to allow cars from East Germany to reach West Germany, later reunified.
November 1989: Opening the former Cold War border to East Germans near HofImage: Kurt Strumpf/AP Photo/picture alliance

Where is Hof?

During the Cold War, Hof was a frontier West German city for one of the few motorway corridors across communist East Germany to Allied-divided Berlin.

It is now a university city renowned for its international film festival and integrative efforts, and shares an EU cross-border region known as Egrensis, between Germany and the neighboring Czech Republic.

ipj/rt (dpa, AFP)