German police work to determine whether suspect is man who fled scene of attack on black bicycle

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A man with a knife fled after attacking four people in Munich on Saturday, police have said.

A suspect was arrested a few hours after the incident and authorities were working to determine whether he was the culprit.

Police were first alerted to the attack in the Haidhausen area, east of central Munich, at about 8.30am, according to a spokesman, Marcus da Gloria Martins. He said a man had assaulted passersby indiscriminately with a knife.

The assailant attacked five men and one woman at different sites in Haidhausen, with four of them wounded but none seriously, Da Gloria Martins said. The victims mainly had superficial stab wounds and in one case had been hit by the man.

Amid conflicting accounts of the direction in which the suspect had fled, police told people in the Rosenheimer Platz area to stay indoors and avoid the nearby Ostbahnhof railway station and a park.

Police issued a description of the suspect, who appeared to be about 40 years old and had a black bicycle, grey trousers, a green jacket and a backpack. He was described as being unshaven, with short blond hair and a “corpulent figure”.

Polizei München (@PolizeiMuenchen) Täterbeschreibung:ca.40 Jahre,Mann, unterwegs mit schwarz. Rad, graue Hose,grüne Trainingsjacke, Rucksack mit Isomatte. #Rosenheimerplatz

About three hours after the stabbings, police arrested a man matching that description who had initially tried to evade officers. “We can’t yet confirm whether he is the perpetrator,” Da Gloria Martins said.

There was no immediate word on a possible motive.