Four people were injured in a knife attack at a university campus in western Germany on Friday by a perpetrator who was apprehended by police after students overpowered him, according to officials.
A 34-year-old man attacked several people at Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences before students secured him, a police spokesperson said.
There are indications that the alleged perpetrator is mentally ill and he is therefore to be examined by a psychiatrist on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Dortmund public prosecutor's office told dpa on Friday evening. There were no signs of a political background to the crime or any accomplices.
Three men and one woman were injured in the attack on Friday afternoon, some of them seriously. The woman had undergone emergency surgery and was in acute danger of death, according to the prosecutor's office.
The attacker had been living in a student dormitory and his accommodation had been searched.
Police earlier said it appeared the man had entered the university building and attacked people in the corridors. He then headed for a larger lecture hall, where he was overpowered by students and held until police officers arrested him.
After calling on the public to avoid the area, police wrote on Twitter that the area was secure and that many officers were on site.
The university opened the cafeteria for shocked students, offering free drinks and chaplains. The aim was "to provide the best possible support for the students," university chancellor Sandra Schlösser told a local newspaper, Westfälischer Anzeiger.
The Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences has existed since 2009. It has 5,600 students across two campuses in Hamm and Lippstadt, both in west Germany. The campus in Hamm is located in the east of the city.
