Germany axe attack: Seven injured at Duesseldorf train station

There was a heavy police presence in the railway station

Seven people have been injured in an axe attack at the main railway station in the western German city of Duesseldorf, police say.

The attack happened at about 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Thursday.

One man has been arrested. The 36-year-old suspect from the former Yugoslavia suffers from psychological problems, Duesseldorf police said.

They said the assailant "attacked people at random". No fatalities have been reported.

One person was injured seriously, and the attacker was also badly injured after jumping from a bridge while trying to escape, police said.

He is being treated in a hospital.

A large number of police were deployed to search the area for possible further suspects. Rail traffic was halted, but is now reported to have resumed.

The motive for the attack is unclear, and police are not describing it as being related to terrorism.

German federal police earlier tweeted a warning to the public not to engage in speculation.

Germany is on high alert for terror attacks. A jihadist drove a lorry into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin in December, killing 12 people.

The area has been sealed off

Images from the scene in Duesseldorf showed that the station had been cordoned off by police, and helicopters hovered overhead.

Witnesses reported seeing injured people lying on the ground.

City Mayor Thomas Geisel tweeted his sympathies to the victims, and thanked security forces.

Duesseldorf's Hauptbahnhof is the city's primary railway station, serving a quarter of a million passengers daily.