Two people have been killed in a violent attack at the private Docemus school campus in Gosen-Neu Zittau, Brandenburg, near Berlin. Police received several emergency calls at around 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 27, and officers arriving at the scene found two people with fatal injuries. A 19-year-old German man was detained and is considered the prime suspect. Brandenburg police have stressed that there is no indication of a mass attack and are treating the case as violence linked to a personal relationship. According to local newspaper Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, one of the victims was an 18-year-old student believed to have been the suspect’s former girlfriend, while the second was a 30-year-old school employee who reportedly tried to intervene. Those details have not yet been fully confirmed by police.
Brandenburg parliament president Ulrike Liedtke described the killing as a “cowardly femicide”, while state premier Dietmar Woidke said the attack had shaken the entire region and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and friends. Regular classes have been cancelled for Friday, although the school will remain open to students who want to gather and receive psychological support. Investigators are continuing to establish the exact motive, the weapon used and the relationship between the suspect and the victims.
