German authorities have arrested two Syrian nationals following a fatal knife attack in Pulheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, during the early hours of Sunday, April 12, 2026. The incident occurred in the local city park after a physical altercation broke out between several individuals.
A 28-year-old German man was killed in the assault, while a 35-year-old Bosnian-Herzegovinian national sustained serious stab wounds and was transported to a nearby hospital. The suspects, aged 20 and 24, were apprehended by police in the vicinity of the crime scene shortly after the attack.
Emergency services were alerted to the scene at approximately 12:10 a.m. by witnesses reporting a disturbance. Officers arriving at the intersection of Johannisstrasse and Am Stadtgarten discovered both victims; despite medical workers attempting to save the younger victim, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cologne police are leading the investigation, but have so far declined to release specific details regarding the motive or the exact sequence of events leading up to the stabbing.
The case was initially reported by local media, but no information was released about the perpetrators’ backgrounds. However, citizen journalist Yvonne Kussmann contacted the local police, who readily gave her the information. While the initial poster complained that this information was not released, Kussmann wrote that she believes that the police are often more than willing to give this information; it is just that media outlets do not publish or request it.
“The arrested suspects are two Syrians, the deceased was German, and the injured person holds Bosnian-Herzegovinian nationality. I inquired with the Cologne police and received very friendly information. Sometimes I think it’s less the police who don’t release information, but rather the media don’t even ask for it in the first place,” wrote Kussmann on X.
Die festgenommenen Tatverdächtigen sind zwei Syrer, der Getötete Deutscher und der Verletzte hat die bosnisch-herzegowinische Staatsangehörigkeit. Ich habe bei der Polizei Köln angefragt und sehr freundlich Auskunft erhalten. Manchmal glaube ich, es ist weniger die Polizei, die…
— Yvonne Kussmann (@YveK22) April 13, 2026The stabbing comes yet again after the debate about migrant crime rages in Germany, including a recent statement from Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressing the topic.
“We must also address the fact that a considerable proportion of this violence comes to the Federal Republic of Germany from immigrant groups,” said the chancellor earlier this month.
🇩🇪🔴German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under fire from the left for tying exploding violence with mass immigration.
"We have an explosion of violence in our society…Then we also need to talk about where this violence comes from. And then we must also address the fact that a… pic.twitter.com/ZPDuI4eHnv
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 27, 2026According to BKA statistics, the foreign share among criminal offenders rose from 29 percent in 2014 to 41.8 percent in 2024.
Data from last year found that there was a 50 percent increase in knife attack victims requiring emergency care in 4 years, according to data from hospitals.
“It’s alarming to see that knives are being used as weapons with increasing frequency in Germany,” Andreas Seekamp, who has worked for 20 years as a senior trauma surgeon at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel Campus, told Der Spiegel.
German doctors have also noted that, besides a higher number of reported knife attacks, their brutality is also increasing. “We have the impression that the attacks are being carried out more deliberately,” said Dietmar Pennig, Secretary General of the German Society for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in stab wounds to the neck or chest, precisely where it is particularly dangerous.”
As Remix News previously reported, migrants are particularly overrepresented in violent crimes, including knife attacks.
“We have imported knife violence. In other cultures, the knife is a kind of status symbol. This is changing the social climate here in the country,” stated criminal attorney Udo Vetter in 2024. He further noted that “knives have become an everyday companion for many people. And the barrier to using them is low.”
