Police transfer German knife rampage suspect to psychiatric hospital

The alleged perpetrator of a knife attack on a university campus in Germany was on Saturday transferred to psychiatric care, as one victim fought for her life in hospital, prosecutors said.

Three women and one man were injured in the incident on Friday, before other students managed to restrain the attacker at the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences.

The 34-year-old suspect, who had been armed with two kitchen knives, "randomly selected" the victims, Dortmund prosecutors' office spokesman Henner Kruse told reporters.

A 30-year-old assistant professor who was among those attacked while attending a conference was in hospital in a critical condition and doctors feared the worst.

"Doctors are pretty much out of hope that she will recover," he said.

A 22-year-old student had suffered eight stab wounds to the stomach and needed emergency surgery, but her condition was not life threatening.

The other two victims, a 22-year-old man and another young woman of the same age, were less seriously injured, he added.

The suspect, a student at the university in the western German city of Hamm, said after the attack that he had felt threatened by a group of students who, according to him, wanted to "annihilate him".

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He was possibly suffering from "paranoid schizophrenia" and "hallucinations", Kruse said, adding that he had a long history of treatment for mental health problems.

The police had ruled out any political or religious motives for the attack and an investigation for attempted murder and serious injury had been opened against him.

• Europe