Three Syrian nationals have been arrested on suspicion of attacking a family on a train in Berlin, repeatedly beating one woman so severely she has been hospitalized with her injuries.
The attack occurred at around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon on an S-Bahn train in the German capital.
A federal police report described how a verbal altercation had ensued between the migrant group and a family before the Syrian nationals, all three of whom are teenagers, proceeded to beat their victims into submission.
A 55-year-old and a 26-year-old suffered facial abrasions, while a 47-year-old woman was punched several times in the head and passed out. She was subsequently tended to by emergency responders and transported to the hospital for medical treatment.
The three adolescent migrants are understood to have fled the scene when the train stopped at the Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station. However, one of the attackers dropped their mobile phone at the crime scene, a mistake that enabled the authorities to identify the group.
“Federal police officers secured a mobile phone that one of the attackers is said to have lost when he fled and initiated a corresponding investigation on the suspicion of dangerous bodily harm,” the police report read.
“As the evening progressed, several people appeared at the Berlin-Lichtenberg federal police station to pick up the lost mobile phone. Three Syrian nationals aged 18 and 19 were identified and named as suspects,” it added.
The investigation into the attack is ongoing.
