A South Sudanese man who fatally pulled an 18-year-old woman onto subway tracks in Hamburg last week had arrived in Germany last year through a United Nations refugee resettlement program, according to German media reports citing immigration records.
The incident occurred Thursday evening at Wandsbek-Markt subway station, when the 25-year-old suspect, identified as Ariop Moses A., grabbed the young woman on the platform and jumped with her in front of an approaching train. Both were struck and died at the scene.
In the aftermath, scrutiny has focused on the suspect’s background and his path into Germany. According to Bild, which says it obtained access to the man’s refugee file and spoke with officials familiar with the case, Ariop Moses A. entered Germany in 2024 through a UN refugee resettlement scheme rather than the standard asylum procedure.
The German tabloid added that the suspect came from the Melut Basin region near the border between Sudan and South Sudan, a longstanding conflict zone.
The file reportedly states that members of Ariop Moses A.’s family were killed during conflict in the region and that he fled as a child to a refugee camp in Kenya, where he remained for approximately 10 years. He was later selected for relocation under a UN Refugee Agency resettlement program intended for people considered unsafe both in their home country and in their country of refuge.
It is unclear why he was considered at-risk in Kenya.
Horrific news coming out of Hamburg, Germany.
A woman was minding her own business waiting for a subway train last night when she was grabbed by a strange man, who threw them both under an arriving train.
Both died instantly. They did not know one another.
Police have launched… pic.twitter.com/Hrjat2LuGf
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 30, 2026The UN agency proposes candidates to participating states, after which national authorities conduct interviews and security checks before issuing visas and organizing travel. German media reported that Germany admitted around 6,000 refugees through resettlement programs in 2024.
Hamburg police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack, including the suspect’s mental condition and possible motives.
The fatal incident adds to a series of violent attacks at railway and subway stations across Germany by migrants in recent years. In August last year, a 31-year-old Iraqi man pushed a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl into the path of a freight train traveling at around 100 kilometers per hour at Friedland station while she was speaking by phone with her grandfather in Ukraine. She died instantly. Earlier this month, the man was ordered into compulsory psychiatric treatment rather than receiving a prison sentence.
In January 2023, a 27-year-old Syrian national was arrested after throwing a 16-year-old schoolgirl onto the tracks at Altena station in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to police, “Suddenly, a young man ran after her, grabbed her from behind, and threw her over the edge of the platform onto platform 1 in front of the stunned fellow passengers,” adding, “Then he jumped after himself and held the young girl firmly on the tracks.” The suspect later climbed back onto the platform and boarded his train.
More recently, in November 2025, Hudhaifa Al-Mashhadani, head of the German-Arab school in Berlin and a critic of radical Islam, said a man attempted to push him toward the tracks at a Neukölln subway station. “The man then hit me on the head with his hand. It was over in a few seconds,” Al-Mashhadani told Focus, saying he managed to resist as a train approached.
In another incident in March 2023, two foreign nationals were arrested at Pforzheim’s central train station after pushing a 49-year-old man onto the tracks when he refused to give them a cigarette. Local media reported the victim was assaulted again as he tried to climb back onto the platform. The suspects, a 33-year-old Algerian and a 31-year-old Tunisian, were later charged with dangerous bodily harm.
