Teenager Arrested After Two Knife Attacks in Hamburg and Uelzen

German law enforcement is grappling with a series of brutal knife attacks in northern Germany, centered on a 17-year-old resident of Uelzen in Lower Saxony. The man was arrested on Sunday, February 23, and placed in investigative custody. The Lüneburg Public Prosecutor's Office accuses him of attempted murder and dangerous infliction of bodily injury. These charges relate to an attack on a 16-year-old boy that occurred on Saturday, February 22, at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) in Hamburg. According to investigators, the teenager was attacked by an unknown perpetrator who then fled the scene. The victim sustained serious injuries and was taken to the hospital. At the same time, in a completely different city, an investigation is underway into a fatal knife attack that occurred on Friday, February 21, in Garbsen near Hanover. There, a 32-year-old man, who tried to mediate an argument between a 14-year-old girl and her assailant, was fatally stabbed. In this case, a 17-year-old resident of Garbsen was also arrested. Although the cases are formally handled separately by the public prosecutor's offices in Hanover and Lüneburg, questions arise about a possible connection between the two incidents and whether the suspect arrested in Uelzen could be the same person. Investigators neither confirm nor deny this theory, emphasizing that intensive investigative activities are ongoing. Uelzen is a county town in Lower Saxony, known for its historic train station designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Hanover, the state capital, and Hamburg, a free Hanseatic city, are major centers in northern Germany. Knife crime has been the subject of fierce political debate in Germany for years, leading to stricter regulations, such as the ban on carrying so-called 'machete-type knives' in public places.In the Hamburg attack case, police released CCTV images showing the fleeing perpetrator, which aided in identification and subsequent arrest. Media reports indicate the arrest took place on Sunday morning at the suspect's residence. Meanwhile, the investigation in Garbsen focuses on the motive. Initially, it was reported that the 17-year-old arrested in this case was the victim's roommate, but later reports do not confirm this connection, instead pointing to a chance encounter at a tram stop.