Several injured in German market square

A man has attacked a number of people with a knife at a market square in the south-west German city of Mannheim, police say.

The incident was caught on a YouTube livestream and showed the attacker stabbing a man, and then a police officer who went to help. He is in a critical condition.

The attacker was shot and injured by another police officer.

Unconfirmed reports suggest one of the people injured was a far-right anti-Islam activist who had been holding a rally in the square.

Police in Mannheim tweeted about a “major police operation” in the city’s market square and a rescue helicopter was sent to the scene.

One person attacked several others with a knife, injuring them, at 11:35 (10:35 BST), police said in a follow-up statement.

A firearm was then used against the attacker, it added.

The attack is understood to have happened at the same time as a rally in the market square hosted by far-right anti-Islam activist Michael Stürzenberger.

His organisation, the Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa (BPE), confirmed to Bild newspaper that Mr Stürzenberger had been injured in the attack.

Police have not released any further information about those injured in the attack.

A livestreamed video from the event shows a man attacking people with a knife. At least one person is seen with a wound to the leg.

A number of bystanders are seen grappling with the attacker, who later manages to break free and stab a police officer in the back.

Several police officers with firearms then surround him, before he falls to the ground.

According to Bild, Michael Stürzenberger is the author of an Islamophobic blog, as well as a member of the BPE, an organisation which says it stands against the “Islamisation” of Germany.

The 58-year-old is one of the authors of the anti-Muslim platform PI-News and is being monitored by the Bavarian domestic intelligence service.

A former politician, Mr Stürzenberger once led a small right-wing populist party Die Freiheit, which was dissolved in 2016.

Before that, he was a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) – the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – but left before he was kicked out.