A 26-year-old man went on a stabbing spree with a kitchen knife in the northern German city of Hamburg on Friday, killing one 50-year-old man and wounding six others, police said.
Passersby tackled the attacker as he fled the scene, enabling plain clothes police officers to take him into custody.
Police said the man, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, suddenly began attacking customers in a supermarket.
A police spokeswoman said she could not confirm a report by a female witness on television that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar”, Arabic for “God is Greatest”, as he ran out of the supermarket.
She said the motive for the attack was still under investigation. Police said the man was born in the UAE but said they were still trying to determine his citizenship.
The spokeswoman also said she had no information that the attacker was known to authorities as an Islamist, as reported by German newspaper Tagesspiegel.
(This story has been edited for length.)
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