German police say the AfD party chairman in Bremen was knocked down with a “lightning-quick” blow in a suspected “politically motivated” attack that left Frank Magnitz unconscious and with a “bone-deep laceration” to his forehead.

The account of events surrounding the attack on the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Bremen on Monday night still remains murky, because the victim of the assault was left senseless in the ambush. Magnitz told RT that he has never seen his attackers, who crept up on him from behind just as he passed two construction workers after leaving a New Year’s reception near Bremen's Goetheplatz.

“I was knocked unconscious,” Magnitz said.

When I came ‘round I realized that I was lying in the street... Blood was running down my face.

“One of the laborers said three individuals had been walking behind me for some time. He said they were conspicuous because they were wearing hoodies, with the hoods covering their faces. I didn’t see them,” the 66-year-old member of the Bundestag added.

Police are now searching for the trio involved in the assault. After reviewing CCTV footage from the crime scene, investigators believe that Magnitz was struck from behind by only one member of the gang, which had followed their victim as he was walking to retrieve his car.

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The public prosecutor's office in Bremen said that surveillance evidence showed Magnitz being struck down with a single, “lightning quick” elbow blow to his head before the pack ran away. “We assume that all of the injuries are solely due to the fall,” Frank Passade, spokesman for the Bremen public prosecutor's office noted Wednesday, claiming that the footage showed “no kicks on a person lying on the ground.”

The police version of the incident contradicts AfD's initial claims that the politician was beaten with a wooden stick and repeatedly kicked on the ground in an “assassination attempt.” The party explained their initial version of the incident was based on the information it was able to gather from one of the construction workers who witnessed the crime.

Magnitz was released from the hospital on Wednesday after suffering a “bone-deep laceration” to his forehead and injuries to his left knee. In an interview with RT, the politician stopped short of pinning the blame on any particular group, as he could not exclude the possibility that the assault against him could have been a failed robbery attempt. Authorities are still investigating the incident as a politically motivated assault.

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