Il Nuovo Postiglione - German woman due in court after mass stabbing in Hamburg

The suspect, a 39-year-old woman, was arrested at the scene of the attack Friday at Hamburg's main station, which stunned the city in the middle of the evening rush hour.

Hamburg police spokesman Florian Abbenseth said there was no evidence of a "political motive", and the woman may have been "experiencing a psychological emergency".

She was arrested without resistance after the attack, which emergency services said had left at least four victims with life-threatening injuries.

The toll from the stabbing spree -- the latest in a series of violent attacks to stun Germany -- has now risen to 18 wounded, from an initial figure of 12 and then 17, police said.

The suspect "remains in custody and is due to appear before a judge on Saturday," they said in a statement.

The suspect is thought to have "acted alone", police said in a post on X.

- Busy station -

The attack was reported by German media to have taken place just after 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) Friday on one of the platforms in front of a standing train.

The suspect was thought to have turned "against passengers" at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told AFP.

Some of the victims in the attack were treated onboard waiting trains in the station, German daily Bild reported.

Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.

Forensic police could also be seen walking up and down the platforms where the attack took place.

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said four platforms at the station had been closed while investigations were ongoing, adding that it was "deeply shocked" by the incident.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed his shock in a call with the mayor of Hamburg.

"My thoughts are with the victims and their families," Merz said, according to a readout from his spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks with often jihadist or far-right extremist motivations that have put security at the top of the agenda.

The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld.

The investigation into that attack has been handed over to federal prosecutors after the Syrian suspect told the police officers who arrested him that he had jihadist beliefs.

The question of security -- and the immigrant origin of some of the attackers -- was a major topic during Germany's recent election campaign.

The February vote saw Merz's conservative CDU/CSU top the vote as well as a record score of more than 20 percent for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany.

M.Lombardi--INP