A GERMAN politician has been stabbed in Mannheim days after a cop was killed in a knife rampage at an anti-Islam rally in the city.
Heinrich Koch, a local council candidate for Alternative for Germany (AfD), was attacked with a knife late on Tuesday evening.
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The suspect has been arrested, according to German news agency dpa.
The AfD district association said the incident occurred near the city’s market square shortly before 11pm.
Koch was stabbed when he confronted someone pulled down posters in the square, reports say.
Cops in Mannheim confirmed there was a police operation underway.
It comes after a 29-year-old police officer died following a frenzied knife attack in Mannheim on Friday – which left five others injured.
The knifeman who rampaged through the anti-Islam rally, named as 25-year-old Sulaiman Ataee, was “radicalised” in the last year, shocked neighbours later claimed.
Ataee moved to Germany from Afghanistan in 2014 when he was just 15-years-old.
It comes amid soaring tensions in Germany over calls for a tougher line on migration.
Interior minister Nancy Faeser said the government was considering deporting Afghan migrants who pose a security threat after the Mannheim knife attack.
During the attack, a heroic police officer was stabbed several times in the head and neck. He died from his injuries on Sunday.
At around 11.30am local time on Friday, May 31, a YouTube live stream captured the moment a bearded man launched an attack at a rally in Germany.
Footage showed him brandishing a huge knife before lunging at far-right activist Michael Stürzenberger as they both tumbled to the floor.
The footage appeared to show Stürzenberger being stabbed in the face, neck and chest.
Police swarmed the scene as one of their officers was attacked by the knifeman.
Two cops then aimed their guns at the attacker as he was laid on the ground as shots rang out.
Following the rampage, Faeser said: “The investigation will clarify the background to this crime.
“If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, then that would be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence that we have warned about.”
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