A teenager is fighting for his life in Germany after being brutally stabbed multiple times by a Syrian gang in Schwerte, North Rhine-Westphalia, on Thursday evening.
Bild reported on Friday how Ahmad Al T. (26), Sulaiman A. (24), and 15-year-old Mahmoud A. were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after targeting 18-year-old Laurentju O., a Romanian national, and stabbing him repeatedly in the back until he collapsed.
The suspects, all Syrian nationals, reportedly grinned as they were arrested by armed police.
Investigators suspect the knife attack was an act of revenge. Earlier that evening, the 15-year-old suspect had allegedly been involved in an altercation, in which he was attacked. The police have opened a separate investigation into that incident on charges of bodily harm.
Authorities believe the three Syrians deliberately sought out the Romanian teenager and launched a violent retaliation, which quickly escalated into a near-fatal stabbing.
Following the attack, a rescue helicopter rushed the critically wounded Laurentju O. to a specialized clinic in Bochum.
A homicide commission has been assigned to the case to determine which of the three suspects initiated the stabbing and who will face attempted murder charges.
The incident comes two days after a multiple fatal stabbing in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg by a failed Afghan asylum seeker who targeted a group of kindergarten children.
A 2-year-old boy was stabbed to death, as was a 41-year-old male passerby who attempted to intervene. Another child was seriously injured and remains hospitalized, while one of the daycare workers accompanying the young children broke her arm trying to fend off the assailant, who was described as being in a “bloody frenzy.”
The immigration status of the three Syrian suspects in Thursday’s attack is currently unknown; however, the Afghan national arrested in Aschaffenburg had been earmarked for deportation, but due to an “administrative error” in which he had told authorities he would voluntarily leave but didn’t, he remained free to roam the country and target the group.
The latest spate of attacks by foreigners has led the opposition CDU and AfD parties — expected to become the two largest parties in the Bundestag after next month’s elections — to call for immediate parliamentary debates on implementing hardline immigration and asylum policies, ensuring swift large-scale deportations of foreign criminals and rejected asylum seekers.
The CDU announced on Thursday its intention to table the motions next week after AfD co-leader Alice Weidel insisted the “price is too high” to wait until after the elections.