The killer and his a 30-year-old man working as a psychologist allegedly got into an argument during a therapy session. The victim died at the scene. German officials denied that the incident was linked to terrorism.
The victim had worked for the Red Cross since 2014. German authorities caught the suspect soon after the Wednesday attack, only few hundred meters away from the scene of the crime in Saarbrücken. The man was hospitalized for serious injuries, which appeared to be self-inflicted.
The police believe that the 27-year-old Syrian migrant stabbed the therapist during a counseling center for traumatized refugees run by the Red Cross. The center in Saarbrücken, near the French border, specializes in treatment of migrants suffering from post-traumatic stress or newcomers having trouble adaptating to German culture.
“We are all appalled and shocked,” German Red Cross chief Rudolf Seiters said. He said all German Red Cross associates were “mourning a commendable employee”. His co-workers had tried in vain to revive their colleague.
Police also found a knife at the scene, but could not say if it was the murder weapon.
“It is quite terrible,” said Martin Erbelding, the spokesman for the Saarland’s DRK national association. “The concern with the colleagues is very, very high.” A crisis intervention team and emergency medical care were on site.
The shocking murder comes in the wake of an attack on Sunday that saw a five-year-old child stabbed to death by an Afghan national at a refugee shelter in southeastern Germany. The 41-year-old assailant also injured the child’s mother, a Russian national.
A six-year-old child at the scene had to be treated for shock and taken to hospital at the refugee shelter in Arnschwang, near the Czech border.
The latest attack also appears similar to a fatal stabbing in Sweden last year, when a 22-year-old female social worker was killed by a young migrant.