German Police Examine Islamic State Stabbing Claim Extremist group says it was responsible for a knife attack in Hamburg that left a teenager dead By William Boston
http://www.wsj.com/articles/german-police-examine-islamic-state-stabbing-claim-1477825845
BERLIN—German authorities on Sunday were trying to determine the authenticity of a claim by Islamic State that the group was responsible for a knife attack in Hamburg two weeks ago that left a teenager dead and set off a manhunt for the unknown attacker.
The militant group’s Amaq news agency posted a statement on its website earlier in the day, saying the attack was carried out by a “soldier of the Islamic State.”
But Hamburg police said the statement doesn’t entirely match the evidence police have turned up since the attack on Oct. 16 and that police couldn’t confirm the attack was an act of terrorism.
A police spokeswoman said homicide detectives, who have been investigating since the attack, are sharing evidence with the city’s special antiterror investigators to determine the veracity of Islamic State’s claims.
“We are checking this to determine its authenticity, but the statement doesn’t match the results of our investigation. There are at least contradictions between our investigation and what they are saying,” a spokeswoman for the Hamburg police told The Wall Street Journal.
Police said two teenagers were sitting under the Kennedy Bridge near the shore of the Alster lake in downtown Hamburg on the evening of Oct. 16, when a tall, Middle Eastern looking man approached them and stabbed the 16-year-old boy and shoved the 15-year-old girl into the water. The girl escaped and called the police. The boy was taken to the hospital, where he died of his wounds later that night.
Police have had few clues to go on and haven’t been able to positively identify the alleged attacker.
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