A 29-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker, formerly living at an asylum home in the German town of Rees, is on the run after robbing several residents of the town and attacking them with an axe.
The first of the attacks occurred on Wednesday at around 9:20 pm when the Moroccan asylum seeker approached a 50-year-old local man and demanded his wallet and cash after brandishing an axe. The man threw his cash at the asylum seeker who only 20 minutes later moved on to his next victim, Tag 24 reports.
The second attack saw the asylum seeker charge at a couple who were driving their car and smash the passenger-side window with his axe. He then told the pair to get out of the vehicle but was met with angry shouts from the male driver who stood up to him.
The 29-year-old then fled the scene and has so far managed to elude authorities who have described him as around 5’9″ tall, wearing a red jacket and a black hoodie.
While no one was seriously injured in the attacks, this is not the first time an asylum seeker has randomly attacked members of the public in Germany with an axe.
In 2016, a failed Afghan asylum seeker attacked and injured several people onboard a train in Wurzburg, in what was later claimed by Islamic State as an attack by one of their fighters.
In the summer of the same year, a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested after he went on a rampage with a large knife which turned deadly after he killed a pregnant woman and injured two others. The woman killed was believed to have been a partner of the asylum seeker.
The following year in Dusseldorf, another axe attack occurred at the city’s main train station, with a migrant from Kosovo injuring seven people.