At least 18 people were injured in a knife attack at Hamburg train station on Friday evening, according to local media reports.

Authorities confirmed the arrest of a woman suspected of being behind the assault. Of the injured, four are in critical condition, while six others sustained serious injuries, according to a report by Germany’s Bild newspaper.

Hamburg police, however, stated on the social media platform X that there were no confirmed figures available as yet but acknowledged that “several” people had suffered life-threatening injuries.

According to police sources, the attacker struck passengers on the platform situated between tracks 13 and 14. The station, located in the heart of Hamburg — Germany’s second-largest city — is a major hub for local, regional, and long-distance train services.

The stabbing took place shortly after 6 p.m., right in front of a waiting train, reports regional broadcaster NDR.

A high-speed ICE train was visible at the platform following the incident, with its doors still open — suggesting the attack occurred as passengers were boarding or alighting from the train.

As a result of the violence, four tracks at the station were shut down on Friday evening. The temporary closures led to delays and diversions for several long-distance trains operating through the busy terminal.

Florian Abbenseth, spokesperson for the Hamburg police, told reporters that the motive behind the attack was still under investigation. “So far, we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation,” he said.

“Rather, we have findings on the basis of which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress,” Abbenseth added.

The stabbing incident comes amid heightened security concerns in Germany. Just earlier this year, in February, days before the country’s federal election, another shocking incident unfolded in Munich where at least 30 people were injured after a car rammed into a crowd.

The suspect in that case was a 24-year-old Afghan national and asylum seeker who was swiftly taken into custody.

The Munich incident had occurred only hours before several prominent international leaders, including US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were due to arrive in the city for the annual Munich Security Conference.(Agency)

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Earlier, emergency services had reported that 10 people had suffered serious or life-threatening injuries. All of the injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

Police said a 39-year-old German woman was detained at the station after stabbing people at random on platform 13/14.

She would be brought before a judge on Saturday, police spokesman Florian Abbenseth said, adding that the woman remained in police custody.

The homicide squad has launched an investigation.

Forensic experts inspect the scene at the central station in Hamburg on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Investigators believe that the woman acted alone and the stabbing was not politically motivated. “Rather, we have findings that lead us to investigate whether she may have been in a state of mental distress,” Abbenseth said, adding that the suspect did not resist arrest.

CNN

By Lauren Kent, Aria Chen, Billy Stockwell and Anna Chernova, CNN

(CNN) — International Harvard students say they are experiencing “pure panic” amid the Trump administration’s move to bar foreign enrollment, as students from around the world told CNN they are coming to grips with the possibility of revoked visas, suspended research and being blocked from reentry to the United States if they leave this summer.

A federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration’s ban on Friday, after the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college filed a suit in federal court. Harvard argued revocation of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was “clear retaliation” for its refusal of the government’s ideologically rooted policy demands.

But thousands of international students remain in limbo, and are “very clearly, extremely afraid” because they don’t know their current their legal status, Harvard student body co-president Abdullah Shahid Sial, who is from Lahore, Pakistan, told CNN.

“They’re literally like, teenagers, thousands of miles away from their hometowns having to deal with this situation, which lawyers often fear to engage in,” said Sial, who is currently traveling overseas after exams and is uncertain if he’ll be able to return to campus.

About 27% of Harvard’s student body is international, with 6,793 international undergraduates and grad students hailing from nearly every country in the world.

“Harvard is Harvard because it has the ability to attract people – the best people – from all over the world, not just the United States,” Sial told CNN on Friday. “The US also benefits heavily from having the best in the world come to the university and study. And then they’ve been dehumanized and disrespected.”

Sial said the university and deans have been helpful in supporting international students at a time of uncertainty and “pure panic,” which is happening days after final exams ended and just one week before graduation.

As student body president, he says he is working to encourage the university to assist international students who want to transfer to other colleges and pushing for students’ financial aid packages to transfer, as well. But the window to transfer to other universities for the fall semester is already closed at most colleges, Sial said.

“Many of us have worked our entire lives to get to a university like Harvard, and now we need to wait around and see if we might have to transfer out and face difficulties with visas,” says rising junior Karl Molden, from Austria.

Molden, who is also traveling abroad and concerned he won’t be allowed to return to campus, said he feels international students are being used as a “ball in this larger fight between democracy and authoritarianism.”

Jared, an 18-year-old in New Zealand, was just accepted to Harvard and had been planning to start undergraduate studies at the Ivy League school this fall. He told CNN it was a “heart drop” moment when he learned of the Trump administration’s announcement – which came in the midst of applying for his student visa and preparing to move the 9,000 miles to Boston.

Jewish students ‘being used as pawns,’ says one Israeli student

Harvard and Trump officials have been locked in conflict for months as the administration demands the university make changes to campus programming, policies, hiring and admissions to root out what the White House has called antisemitism and “racist” practices.

Like many other colleges and universities, Harvard drew intense criticism last year for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as complaints from Jewish alumni and students about antisemitism on campus.

Harvard has acknowledged antisemitism on its campus, particularly during the previous academic year, and said it has begun taking concrete action to address it.

An Israeli postdoctoral student studying at Harvard said she feels like Jewish students are “being used as pawns” by the Trump administration, which has accused the university of perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is “hostile to Jewish students” and “employs racist diversity, equity and inclusion practices.”

The Israeli student, who did not want to be named in fear of being denied reentry to the United States, said she believed the Trump administration was “using” the university to “have this battle with academia that is much bigger than Harvard.”

She said the government was clamping down on ideas that “don’t always align with the administration, rather than (having) an actual concern for the safety of Jewish students, Israeli students.”

“So, I do feel like we’re being used,” she said, adding that she thinks university leadership is taking the issue of antisemitism on campus seriously. “I don’t want to diminish anyone’s experience at the university. I know people have had tough experiences, but I do feel like I have, personally, 100% trust and faith in our leadership.”

Another Israeli master’s student studying at Harvard, who wished to remain anonymous due to concerns about how speaking publicly might impact their studies, told CNN it is “very important for Israelis and Jewish people to come here and still be very strong in what they believe in … And not only in Harvard, I would say in American academia and on American campuses right now, more than ever.”

Young researchers say they will leave US

One graduate student from Australia, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being denied future US visas, told CNN it “feels extraordinary that we are all being punished” for campus activism, given that researchers and PhD students often don’t have the time or interest to engage.

“As a graduate student, we are just fully occupied with our research work, which I would say I spend 80 to 100 hours on each week,” said the Australian student, adding that the showdown between the Trump administration and Harvard will likely lead to researchers leaving the country. “If things really hit the fan, (I) would probably be trying to transfer to a school in the UK.”

Other graduate students said they are also feeling fear and uncertainty, with concerns for their research work, their future careers and their loved ones.

“There’s the ramifications for their family, you know, spouses, their children, their enrollment, their work status, their rent, housing, everything,” said Fangzhou Jiang, 30, from China. He is a Harvard Kennedy School student going into his second year of a master’s program. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Facing deportation from the US, and retribution at home

For some international students, like those from countries at war or experiencing political turmoil, the stakes are even higher.

Maria Kuznetsova, a former spokesperson for OVD-Info, a Russian independent human rights monitoring group, is currently a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She’s graduating in a week and had planned to work on a Harvard-sponsored visa that had already been granted, but she fears it may be canceled now.

“I used to work in Russian human rights and in the opposition, which means I can’t return to Russia,” Kuznetsova told CNN. “And since I’ve been living in the US for two years now, I don’t even have a European visa. So, I don’t really know where I could even go geographically if things go wrong.”

“From what I see, people are still in a state of panic – everyone’s waiting for the court’s decision,” Kuznetsova said.

“It’s not just me from Russia here – there are also many Ukrainians, a lot of political students from Venezuela, and people from Afghanistan and Palestine. I even have a classmate from North Korea. These are people who, quite literally, cannot return to their home countries,” she added.

Ivan Bogantsev, also from Russia, was planning to stay in the US after completing his program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His wife, currently in Russia and also on a Harvard-sponsored visa, is due to arrive for his graduation, but he’s unsure whether she’ll be allowed entry.

“No one seems able to explain whether we’re at risk of deportation or not,” Bogantsev told CNN. “I believe a brain drain from this country is absolutely guaranteed. I can’t say to what extent, but the environment here is extremely unfriendly.”

But he said going back to Russia is not an option he is considering.

“I was detained at rallies (in Russia), and let’s just say the atmosphere was growing increasingly tense. And secondly, most of my friends are essentially labeled (in Russia) as criminals, traitors or foreign agents.”

‘Harvard campus will not be the same’

Leo Gerdén, from Sweden, who is supposed to graduate next week, told CNN that some of his friends still at Harvard “are making new plans of transferring, especially to other institutions abroad.”

“I was looking forward to celebrating commencement next week, but now, you know, I might leave this place and it will not look the same next semester, because without these international students and its international researchers, the Harvard campus will not be the same,” Gerdén said.

“We are being used essentially as poker chips in a battle between the White House and Harvard, and it feels honestly very dehumanizing.”

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Helen Regan, Todd Symons and Isa Soares contributed to this report.

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Eighteen people were injured – four of whom remain in critical condition – in a knife attack Friday in the German city of Hamburg, authorities said.

Hamburg police said they have arrested a 39-year-old German woman, who they believe acted alone in carrying out the attack at the city’s Central Station, after a major police operation. She is in police custody and expected to be brought to a court on Saturday, police said.

Six people were “badly injured,” while seven others were “lightly injured,” the fire department said. Dozens of emergency services were active on the scene.

Police previously said that several people had sustained “life-threatening injuries” in the attack.

Investigations into the incident are ongoing. Police told CNN that officers are not currently assuming any political motivation, but were looking into whether the suspect had been in a state of mental distress.

In a statement late on Friday, Hamburg police said the attacker had acted “apparently indiscriminately, stabbed passersby, injuring some of them critically.”

“Further background and circumstances are not yet known. The investigation is being conducted intensively,” the police statement said, adding more information would be provided “as it becomes available.”

Video footage from the scene filmed by CNN’s affiliate RTL Germany shows people in forensic suits inspecting the area while police gather in the train station.

Following the attack, Germany’s Friedrich Merz thanked the city’s emergency responders for their assistance and said that his “thoughts are with the victims and their families,” according to federal government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius.

Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt also said his thoughts were with the victims and thanked the emergency services. “It is shocking when travelers are attacked in a treacherous and cowardly manner,” Dobrindt said.

Hamburg’s Central Station is the busiest passenger railway station in Germany, with more than 550,000 travelers per day, according to the city’s website.

Germany has faced rising rates of knife crime in recent years, with some incidents stirring up tensions over migration ahead of parliamentary elections in February.

Some in the country were concerned by a series of high-profile attacks allegedly carried out by asylum seekers or migrants.

In January, a 28-year-old man from Afghanistan was arrested following a knife attack in the German city of Aschaffenburg in which two people were killed, including a toddler.

Last year, a Syrian man turned himself in and confessed to stabbing to death three people and wounding several others at a festival in the western German city of Solingen.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Local police confirmed the arrest of the suspect at the scene and stated that there is currently no evidence pointing to a political or ideological motive. “So far we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation,” said police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth. “Rather, we have findings on the basis of which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress.” Of the 18 victims, six sustained serious injuries. Emergency responders and medical personnel arrived quickly at the scene to treat the wounded, and several were transported to nearby hospitals for further care.

The attack disrupted train operations in the busy downtown station — one of Germany’s major rail hubs. Authorities temporarily closed four tracks, causing delays and rerouting of multiple long-distance services. The motive behind the attack remains unclear, and investigations are ongoing. Police continue to interview witnesses and analyze footage from surveillance cameras at the station.

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Police officers and forensic experts work at Hamburg’s main train station, after several people were injured in a knife attack, in Germany, on Friday. (Photo: Reuters)

BERLIN — Eighteen people were injured in a knife attack in Hamburg station on Friday evening, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported, and local police confirmed they had arrested the suspected assailant.

Four victims are in critical condition and six others are seriously injured, Bild reported, saying the motive for the attack was unclear.

Police said the suspected assailant was a 39-year old woman who allowed herself to be arrested without resistance.

“So far we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation,” said Hamburg police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth. “Rather, we have findings on the basis of which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress.”

A view shows Hamburg’s main train station, after several people were injured in a knife attack, in Germany, on Friday. (Photo: Reuters)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, that the news from Hamburg was “shocking.”

“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he said.

A 39-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly stabbing multiple people at Germany’s busiest train station; authorities suspect mental distress as motive.

Germany: 17 Injured in Random Knife Attack at Hamburg Central Station, Lone Attacker Arrested

Seventeen people were injured in a shocking knife attack at Hamburg Central Station on Friday evening, May 23, as a woman allegedly stabbed multiple individuals on a crowded train platform, according to reports from CNN, The New Daily, and The New York Times.

The attack occurred around 6:00 p.m. local time, when the suspect began randomly stabbing travelers waiting for a long-distance train. Hamburg’s fire department confirmed that six people were “badly injured,” while seven others sustained “light injuries.” The exact number of victims with life-threatening injuries remains unclear, though early reports indicated several were critically wounded.

German police arrested a 39-year-old woman at the scene. Authorities say the attacker acted alone and surrendered without resistance upon police arrival. The incident took place in a weapons-free zone at one of Germany’s busiest and most heavily monitored transit hubs.

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According to a statement by Hamburg police, the suspect “apparently indiscriminately stabbed passersby, injuring some of them critically.” Investigators believe the woman may have been experiencing mental distress at the time of the attack.

Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher confirmed the suspect’s arrest and extended his sympathies to the victims. “The perpetrator is in custody,” he said. “I wish the victims of the crime much strength and hope that those who are seriously injured will also be able to be saved.”

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed solidarity with the victims and their families, also commending emergency responders for their swift action. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the incident as “shocking,” adding, “It is terrifying when travelers are attacked in such a treacherous and cowardly manner.”

The attack has added to growing national concern over a recent spike in knife-related violence across Germany. Just days earlier, on May 18, five people were injured in a knife attack in Bielefeld. Last August, a knife-wielding man killed three and injured eight during a festival in Solingen, and in June 2024, another incident in Mannheim left seven people injured.

Authorities have launched a full investigation into the Hamburg attack and are working to determine the assailant’s motive and mental state at the time.