BERLIN (AP) — A judge ordered a 27-year-old Eritrean man to be held in jail following a knife attack on two students in southwestern Germany in which a 14-year-old girl died and a 13-year-old girl was seriously injured, authorities said Tuesday.
The man, who is accused of attacking the teens as they headed to school in the southwestern town of Illerkirchberg, declined to speak when he appeared before a judge at the hospital where he was treated for injuries following his arrest shortly after Monday’s attack. He was transferred to a prison hospital, prosecutors said.
Investigators have so far found “no information whatsoever pointing to a political or religious motivation for this crime,” said Thomas Strobl, the interior minister for Baden-Wuerttemberg state.
Two other men detained by police Monday have been released, prosecutors said.
The morning attack on the two girls as they were walking to catch a bus to school caused widespread shock and anger.
The girl who died had family roots in Turkey, and Turkey’s ambassador in Germany visited the girl’s family in Illerkirchberg on Tuesday to offer his condolences, the Anadolu Agency reported. He was scheduled to visit the site where she died to leave flowers.
