In July 2016, passengers aboard a train in Wurzburg, Germany were attacked by a 17-year-old Afghani asylum seeker. He had entered Germany as an unaccompanied child refugee and was living with a foster family. The boy entered the train and proceeded to attack passengers with a knife and a hatchet. Four family members from Hong Kong were seriously injured. As the suspect exited the train, he hit a woman in the face twice with the hatchet. Authorities confronted the boy and shot him dead after he attempted to attack them.
The attacker was said to have been upset about the death of a close friend in Afghanistan and wanted revenge. He had initially been asked by ISIS to drive a vehicle into a crowd, but he turned it down saying he couldn’t drive. Instead, he said he would carry out his own attack. Authorities found an ISIS flag in his room at his foster home. The family hosting him said he was a devout Muslim, but didn’t show any signs of extremism.
