German mayoral candidate wounded in knife attack

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

BERLIN — A mayoral candidate for the city of Cologne was wounded in a knife attack Saturday, German media reports said.

Henriette Reker was attacked while campaigning in the city, located in western Germany, according to the DPA press agency and other outlets. She was said to be seriously wounded.

The attacker, not identified, has been arrested along with three other people.

Reker is an independent candidate although her candidacy is backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The election takes place Sunday.

Reker currently coordinates Cologne's policies on immigration integration and social welfare policies, DPA said.

Cologne has seen far-right demonstrations in recent months, but there is nothing to indicate Saturday's attack is linked to those.

Germany is expected to take in up to a million asylum seekers this year as conflicts in the Middle East continue to rage and the European Union struggles to agree on a cohesive strategy to control the influx.

This week, leaders meeting Brussels identified Turkey as a key partner in any solution. Many migrants travel through that nation as part of long journeys to Northern Europe. Turkey is currently hosting around two million migrants. Hungary has now completely closed its border with Croatia, meaning that Slovenia is now bracing for thousands of migrants to travel through there en route to Austria and Germany.

