The 2018 Hamburg stabbing attack was an attack on 12 April 2018 in the city of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. A man stabbed his ex-wife and his one-year-old daughter on a station platform. Both victims died.

Attack

On the morning of 12 April 2018 the victims and the suspect met at the

Stadthausbrücke station Stadthausbrücke is an underground railway station, on the City S-Bahn line of the Hamburg S-Bahn. The station is located in New Town quarter of the Hamburg borough of Mitte (centre), Germany. The station is managed by DB Station&Service. H ...

. The suspected assailant, Mourtala Madou, stabbed his ex-wife, identified as Sandra P., and their one-year-old daughter in the

Jungfernstieg station Jungfernstieg () is an underground railway stationName, station code and category: Liste Bahnhofskategorie 2008, DB Station&Service AG, Köthener Straße 2, 10963 Berlin (2008) in the city centre of Hamburg, Germany, served by the underground ...

Hamburg S-Bahn The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the ...

near the

Hamburg Rathaus Hamburg City Hall (german: link=no, Hamburger Rathaus, ) is the seat of local government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is the seat of the government of Hamburg and as such, the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parl ...

and the mall of Europa Passage. The child died at the scene, the mother was taken to hospital, but died there later. One of the woman's children was also present. Several eyewitnesses were treated as well. The suspect called the police after the fact and was detained subsequently.Mitten in Hamburg, mitten am Tag

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Histo ...

According to prosecutors, the suspect acted out of outrage because a court had denied him custody of his children the day before the stabbing. In May 2018, authorities released information indicating that the child had not been beheaded. Although the stab wound to the neck was lethal, the cause of death was another stab wound.

Suspect and motive

According to the prosecutor's office, the suspect acted in anger and revenge, because he had lost a custody dispute days before. If he had won, he might have been allowed to stay in Germany. He had been threatening the woman for some time, and she had made a complaint to the police. He was taken into custody and is charged with two counts of murder. The mother had four more children, who were taken into the care of the children's emergency service following their mother's death. The suspect belonged to what is known in Hamburg as the "

Lampedusa Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The ''comune'' of ...

group", who came to the city via

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in 2013, and had been granted a residence permit.In Hamburg erstochene Mutter wurde von Ex-Partner bedroht
Merkur.de and he was later residing in the public refugee housing in

Wandsbek Wandsbek () is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city and state of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes through here. Wandsbek, which was formerly an independent city, is urba ...

Trial

The trial started in the ''Hamburger

Landgericht ''Landgericht'' may refer to: * Landgericht (Germany), a mid-level court in the present-day judicial system of Germany *: For example, ** Landgericht Berlin ** Landgericht Bremen * Landgericht (medieval) The ''Landgericht'' (plural: ''Landgerichte' ...

'' in October 2018 where the suspect was charged with double murder. At the start of the trial the suspect confessed to the deed.

Reactions

A spokesman for Hamburg police, Timo Zill, called the crime "substantial" and "unusual for Hamburg".

Katharina Fegebank Katharina Fegebank (born 27 February 1977) is a German politician for the Alliance '90/The Greens, who has served as Second Mayor of Hamburg and Senator for Science, Research and Equality since 2015. She briefly served as acting First Mayor in M ...

, Deputy Mayor of Hamburg stated that she was shocked about the crime: "If a child is stabbed by the hand which should protect it, this exceeds any imaginable cruelty." Many citizens of Hamburg brought flowers and candles and mourned at the place of the crime.Nach Messerangriff am Jungfernstieg: Hamburg nimmt Anteil am Tod einer Mutter und ihrer Tochter
RTL

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamburg stabbing attack, 2018 2010s in Hamburg 2018 in Germany 2018 murders in Germany April 2018 crimes in Europe April 2018 events in Germany Deaths by stabbing in Germany Familicides Knife attacks 2018 stabbing attack Murdered German children Stabbing attacks in 2018 Stabbing attacks in Germany Incidents of violence against girls Incidents of violence against women