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A 50-year-old German man has been killed and six people injured in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket.

Police said the suspect was 26 years old and born in the United Arab Emirates. They said he acted alone and he was overpowered by passersby.

Mayor Olaf Scholz said the attack was motivated by "hate" but did not say it was a terror attack.

There are unconfirmed reports that the man shouted "Allahu akhbar", Arabic for "God is great" while attacking people.

Police said they were still seeking to confirm his current nationality. Mr Sholz said he was a failed asylum seeker.

The man attacked customers in the supermarket at random, ran outside and was chased by customers and by people outside the shop. They brought him to the ground before he was detained by plain-clothes police officers.

Mobile phone footage on German media that is purportedly of the attack's aftermath shows several people chasing a man and throwing chairs at him.

A 50-year-old woman and four men aged between 19 and 64 were stabbed, while a 35-year-old man was injured while helping overcome the suspect.

The attack happened in the Barmbek region in the north of the city in a branch of Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket chain.

Police say the man's weapon may have looked like a machete but they are, for now, assuming it was a kitchen knife.

One eyewitness made a gesture about 50cm (20 in) long when asked on German TV how big the knife was.

Asked whether this was a terror attack, a police official told the BBC: "We are at an early stage of the investigation... At the moment we can't rule anything out. We are investigating all avenues."

Speculation in German media said the attack may have been part of a robbery attempt but police said that that motive could not be confirmed.

One eyewitness, who ran from the scene into a nearby shop as the situation unfolded, told German broadcaster NTV that it seemed "hectic and confused, not like a properly planned attack".</s>One person was killed and several injured in a knife attack in a supermarket in the northern German city of Hamburg on Friday, the city's police said.

The man ran into a supermarket in the Barmbek neighbourhood and attacked customers with a knife at around 3pm local time (2pm).

"He struck out at customers without warning. There are one dead and several injured," Heike Uhde, a police spokeswoman said.</s>One person has been killed and several injured in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket, German police say.

Hamburg police said on Twitter that one suspect had been arrested but that it was too soon to pinpoint a motive.

Bild newspaper published a photo of a man purported to be the attacker covered in blood.

The newspaper said the attacker began wildly striking at shoppers before being stopped by police. He was acting alone, police confirmed.

The attack happened in the Barmbek region in the north of the city.

Witnesses said the attack happened at a branch of Edeka, Germany's largest supermarket chain.

Speculation in German media said the attack may have been part of a robbery attempt but police said that that motive could not be confirmed.</s>One person was killed and several injured on Friday when a man wielding a large knife stormed a supermarket in the German city of Hamburg, allegedly trying to rob the supermarket, according to initial police reports. Witnesses reported that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” — ‘Allah is great’ in Arabic — during the wild attack.

The immediate vicinity of the store in the neighborhood of Barmbek district, have been cordoned off and closed to traffic on a large radio, police sources said on Twitter.

According to the first information, the attacker indiscriminately slashed at those inside the supermarket, injuring several people and stabbing one person, who died at the scene, police said.

Update: The attacker was named as Ahmed al H., a 26-year-old Arab-born refugee who had been monitored by the police for his radical Islamist ideology and was awaiting deportation.</s>One person was killed and several others injured when a unidentified assailant attacked people with a knife in a Hamburg supermarket, BBC quoted German police as saying. On their Twitter account, Hamburg police said one suspect had been arrested but they steered clear of attaching any motive to the attack.

9:02 pm: Speculation is rife in the German media saying the knife attack could likely have been part of a robbery attempt.

8:45 pm: The police has warned people to stay away from the area. The attack took place at a branch of Edeka, one of Germany’s largest supermarket chain.

8:40 pm: The attack took place in the Barmbek region situated in the northern part of the city, police said.

8:30 pm: German newspaper Bild said the attacker began striking shoppers before being apprehended by police.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>A man shouting "Allahu Akbar" stabbed to death one person and wounded six others in a supermarket in the German city of Hamburg on Friday.

The attacker, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, was overpowered by passers-by and arrested.

Olaf Scholz, the mayor of Hamburg, said the attack had been motivated by "hate" and added that the suspected attacker was a failed asylum seeker whose deportation had been blocked because he lacked identity papers.

"I am outraged by the vicious attack that killed at least one Hamburger today," he said.

"It makes me especially angry that the perpetrator appears to be a person who claimed protection in Germany and then turned his hate against us."

Citing security sources, Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that the 26-year-old perpetrator was known to police as an Islamist. News agency DPA reported that security authorities were investigating evidence the man had Salafist ties.

The attacker stabbed to death a 50-year-old man believed to be a German citizen

Police said that he "struck out wildly" at others, wounding five more in the supermarket - a 50-year-old woman and four men aged 19, 56, 57 and 64.

Another 35-year-old man was hurt while overpowering the attacker in the street alongside other passers-by shortly after the killing.

All of the wounded were being treated or operated on in hospital, some of them for serious injuries, police said.

A police murder unit and a specialist politically-motivated crime squad are investigating the attack and were able to secure the suspected murder weapon.

German daily Bild published a picture of the attacker in the back of a police car with a white, blood-soaked bag over his head, and reported that he cried "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) during the attack.

"Suddenly I saw a man smeared with blood running along the other side of the road with a knife," an eyewitness identified as Ralf W. told Bild. "He shouted out 'Allahu Akbar' as he was running."

A female witness standing in line at the supermarket till also told NTV rolling news channel that "as he was running out... he held up his arms and shouted 'Allahu Akbar'."

"I thought I was in a horror movie, I thought he would kill me," an unnamed woman who had been in the supermarket told rolling news channel NTV.

She said she feared she would die, as she was "queueing for the till and couldn't get away".

The suspect fled the supermarket after the attack. But "people were running after him with improvised weapons, chairs and sticks... they ran after him into a side street," Ralf W. told Bild. "People chased after the killer with chairs, they were throwing them at him," bakery worker Shaylin Roettmer told DPA. The witnesses slightly injured the attacker while they were overpowering him, before handing him over to police. Police cars outside the supermarket in Hamburg Police blocked off the lively and diverse high street dotted with cafes and shops in the northeast of the port city, Germany's second largest and host of the G20 summit of world leaders in early July. Anti-terror officers armed with automatic weapons patrolled the scene and onlookers gathered behind strips of red-and-white police tape. While the attacker's motives remain unknown, Germany has been on high alert about the threat of a jihadist attack, especially since last December's truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the carnage in which a Tunisian rejected asylum seeker and ex-convict, Anis Amri, 24, ploughed the stolen truck through a crowd.</s>A man armed with a knife has fatally stabbed one person at a supermarket in the German city of Hamburg and wounded four others as he fled.

The man was arrested after the incident in the Barmbek district of the northern port city.

One person died at the scene after the assailant entered the supermarket, police said. As he fled, he injured another four people.

He was overwhelmed by passers-by and slightly injured in the process, police said. Officers were then able to arrest the man.

Police spokesman Timo Zill said authorities are investigating all possibilities in relation to the attack, which was carried out with a kitchen knife, according to the dpa news agency.

Police do not yet have any information on the assailant’s motive, but there was no indication there was more than one attacker involved.

Barmbek is in north-eastern Hamburg, situated away from the city centre.</s>Police arrested a blood-soaked man after at least one person was killed and severla injured at a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany Friday afternoon.

The attack took place at a supermarket in the Barmbek neighbourhood of Hamburg at around 3 pm local time according to police. The man involved, who has yet to be identified to the press, ran into the supermarket and began attacking customers with a “long kitchen knife” leading to the death of at least one victim.

One alleged witness to the attack claimed that the man stabbed the customers and yelled “Allahu Akbar!” immediately after the attack.

Police captured the suspected killer shortly after the attack as he attempted to flee and has been arrested. Germany’s Spiegel reports after the attack the man fled in the direction of the Barmbek metro station but was chased by witnesses, allowing police to make their arrest. The news magazine also reports the motive for the killer is not clear, but counter-terror police have not yet been involved with the investigation.

Photographs acquired by Germany tabloid Bild showed the suspect, drenched in blood and wearing a so-called ‘spit mask’ being driven away by officers in a marked squad car.</s>BERLIN (AP) – German police say one person died after a man with a knife attacked several people at a supermarket in Hamburg.

Police in the northern port city said the attacker was arrested.

They said on Twitter that the motive for the incident Friday in Hamburg’s Barmbek district wasn’t immediately clear.</s>A knife-wielding man reportedly screamed "Allahu Akbar" during a wild attack inside a Hamburg supermarket that killed at least one person and left four others bloodied and wounded on Friday.

German police arrested the suspected attacker in the Barmbek district after witnesses followed the man and alerted authorities. The suspect was overwhelmed by passers-by and slightly injured in the process, police said.

The assailant entered the supermarket and stabbed one person, who died at the scene, before fleeing the scene. While on the run, the suspect stabbed and injured four other people.

Officials wrote on Twitter that "the motive and the number of injured persons" were not yet known, but did confirm that "one person died."

It was not immediately known if the assault had any connection to terror. ISIS has been urging its followers to use knives or vehicles in order to facilitate more attacks and Germany has been the site of past Islamist incidents.

But both German newspaper BILD and a witness to the assault said the man yelled "Allahu Akbar" during the bloody spree. The phrase, Arabic for "God is great," is frequently shouted by Islamic extremists before an attack.

Police initially said they were looking for a second person in connection with the attack, however, later they said the man in custody was the lone suspect.

The supermarket was blocked off by police as they investigated the incident.

This is a Fox News breaking story. Please check back for updates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
One person is killed and four others are injured in a knife attack in an Edeka supermarket in Barmbek in the German city of Hamburg. Mayor Olaf Scholz said the attack was motivated by "hate". The attacker is reported to have shouted "Allahu Akbar" before attacking.