DSSELDORF: German police have arrested an axe-wielding attacker believed to be suffering from mental health issues after he injured seven people at the main train station in Duesseldorf.
According to a witness, the 36-year-old man from the former Yugoslavia jumped out of a train late on Thursday evening and started hacking randomly at people, leaving blood everywhere.
Armed police commandos in balaclavas and bullet-proof vests backed by police helicopters rushed to the station and captured the axeman after he leapt off a bridge to evade arrest.
"Out of the seven injured, three were badly hurt and four were slightly injured," police said.
A police spokesman told AFP on Friday morning that they had ruled out an fundamentalist motive for the attack.
Investigators had earlier said the man was in an "exceptional mental state" at the time of the rampage and "it's because of this state that he carried out this act."
Germany is on edge after a string of attacks in recent months -- many carried out by people with mental health problems -- culminating in a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State group.
Police have been unable to interview the Duesseldorf attacker as his injuries from jumping off the bridge were too severe, according to local news agency DPA.
Authorities originally said several attackers were involved, but after determining the man was the sole person responsible and taking him into custody, the station was reopened shortly before midnight.
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