A knife attacker injured a German town mayor in an assault which officials Tuesday said appeared motivated by the municipal leader's pro-refugee stance. Chancellor Angela Merkel was "horrified by the knife attack", her spokesman Steffen Seibert wrote on Twitter.
Andreas Hollstein, 57, the mayor of the western town of Altena, was attacked Monday evening at a local kebab restaurant by a man who had loudly criticised his liberal refugee policy. The 56-year-old attacker, who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, used a 30-centimetre (one foot) long knife, reported Spiegel Online.
He was arrested at the scene. The town of about 17,000 people was well known for taking in a larger share of asylum seekers than required amid the mass influx that has brought more than one million migrants and refugees to Germany since 2015. The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, said security services assumed the attack was "politically motivated".
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