The attacked happened earlier today in a market square in Mannheim, Germany. Because it's early we don't have all the details yet but it looks pretty clearly like this was not a random attack but one targeted at an anti-Islam group that was about to hold a rally in the square.

The attack is understood to have happened at the same time as a rally in the market square hosted by far-right anti-Islam activist, Michael Stürzenberger, and his organisation the Citizens' Movement Pax Europa (BPE).

A spokeswoman for the city of Mannheim confirmed that the organisation had registered an event on the market square for Friday morning.

BPE confirmed to Bild newspaper that Mr Stürzenberger was attacked in the leg and face.

His colleague Stefanie Kizina told the newspaper that Mr Stürzenberger has to undergo surgery, but his life was not in danger.

"The attack happened before the event even started, it must have been planned well in advance," she said.

In all, six people were injured in the attack, five of them members of the Pax Europa group. Also injured was a police officer who was stabbed in the neck. [This is a Google translation of a local German paper.]

Six people were injured in the attack during a rally by the anti-Islam group Pax Europa on Friday (May 31) on Mannheim's market square, including five members of the movement and a police officer. The attacker stabbed the police officer several times in the head from behind before another officer shot him and also injured him. The injured were then immediately taken to hospitals and some had to undergo emergency surgery. The identity of the perpetrator is still unclear.

The injuries to the police officer are the most serious.

A German policeman stabbed in a knife attack on the market square in Mannheim suffered life-threatening injuries and is being operated on in hospital, security sources told dpa on Friday.

Video of the incident is circulating on X but the site seems to be removing at least some copies and won't allow me to embed most of them. It's possible this one will disappear as well. Be warned. It's a very violent clip which not only shows people being stabbed but shows the attacker being shot by police.

BREAKING; WARNING:

GERMANY: A brutal stabbing attack by an Islamist terrorist in the center of a German city.

Moments ago, several people were stabbed in downtown Mannheim, West Germany. They are in critical condition. The terrorist has been neutralized. pic.twitter.com/fjOf13AriK

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 31, 2024

What I don't understand about this is why the police officer who was stabbed was leaping on top of the guy in the blue jacket instead of focusing on the attacker with the knife. Video seems to show the guy in the blue jacked was arrested after the attacker was shot. What did he do? 

Hier wird der mutige Helfer auch noch festgenommen und bekommt Handschellen.
Davor hat die Polizei ihn daran gehindert, #Stürzenberger zu helfen, pic.twitter.com/yuSrpmW9nk

— Martin Sellner 🪥 (@Martin_Sellner) May 31, 2024

German authorities have condemned the attack. Here's the statement from Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Die Bilder aus Mannheim sind furchtbar. Mehrere Personen sind von einem Attentäter schwer verletzt worden. Meine Gedanken sind bei den Opfern. Gewalt ist absolut inakzeptabel in unserer Demokratie. Der Täter muss streng bestraft werden.

— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) May 31, 2024

It reads: 

The pictures from Mannheim are terrible. Several people were seriously injured by an attacker. My thoughts are with the victims. Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy. The perpetrator must be severely punished.

The reaction from the Interior Minister was a bit more pointed about the likely motive here.

Die Ermittlungen werden die Hintergründe dieser Tat aufklären. Wenn die Ermittlungen ein islamistisches Motiv ergeben, dann wäre das eine erneute Bestätigung der großen Gefahr durch islamistische Gewalttaten, vor der wir gewarnt haben.

— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) May 31, 2024

It reads:

The knife attack in Mannheim is a terrible crime. The images of the crime are shocking. I hope the victims make a full recovery. My thoughts are also with the seriously injured police officer. My thanks go to the police and rescue services.

The investigation will clarify the background to this crime. If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, then that would be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence that we have warned about.

I'm not familiar with Michael Stürzenberger or his organization but Beege has a post coming up later that will go into more detail about the politics of this.