At least 12 people injured in Hamburg train station stabbing, suspect in custody: Authorities
Photo by Georg Wendt/picture alliance via Getty Images
(HAMBURG, GERMANY) — At least 12 people were injured, including three critically, in a stabbing attack at a train station in Germany on Friday, authorities said.
The suspect in the stabbing — a 39-year-old woman — has been arrested, police said.
The incident occurred at a train station in Hamburg. A knife was used in the attack, police said.
Police have not publicly identified the suspect. She is believed to have acted alone, according to Hamburg police, who said they are investigating her background. Police believe she may have been in “mental distress.”
“So far, we have no evidence that the woman could have acted with political motivation,” Hamburg police spokesperson Florian Abbenseth told reporters. “Rather, we have findings on the basis of which we are now investigating in particular whether she may have been in a state of mental distress.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — U.S.-Russian dual citizen Ksenia Karelina was released from Russian prison in an overnight prisoner exchange, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday.
The exchange took place overnight in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov confirmed to ABC News that she had been released.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the exchange in a tweet, writing, “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release.”
A U.S. official told ABC News that American and Russian intelligence agencies took the lead in negotiating the prisoner swap.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement, “Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia. I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort and we appreciate the government of UAE for enabling the exchange.”
A CIA spokesperson told ABC News that “much of the swap was negotiated by the U.S. government, with CIA playing a key role engaging with Russian intelligence.”
“Through these engagements, CIA negotiated with Russia and worked closely with domestic and foreign partners, including the UAE, to carry out the exchange,” the spokesperson said. “We also collaborated closely with counterparts at agencies across the [U.S. government] to facilitate this exchange.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service also confirmed Karelina’s release, saying she had been pardoned via a decree from President Vladimir Putin. The FSB said the exchange was made at Abu Dhabi airport with the mediation of the UAE.
German-Russian citizen Artur Petrov — who was detained in Cyprus in 2023 at the request of the U.S. and later extradited — was exchanged for Karelina, the service said.
A Justice Department notice of his arrest said Petrov was accused of involvement in a scheme to procure U.S.-sourced microelectronics subject to export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier. The components were intended for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military, the notice said.
A 2024 statement related to Petrov’s extradition to the U.S. said he was part of a network that secretly supplied Russia’s military industrial complex with “critical U.S. technology, including the same types of microelectronics recovered from Russian weapons on Ukrainian battlefields.”
Karelina — a ballet dancer — was serving a 12-year prison sentence in a penal colony, having been convicted of treason in August 2024. She was accused of organizing fundraisers for Ukraine’s military, attending pro-Ukraine rallies and posting social media messages against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Her boyfriend, Chris Van Heerden, spoke to ABC News Live hours after her sentencing, saying she did nothing wrong. He said all she did was donate $50 to a Ukrainian charity.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Cindy Smith, Tanya Stukalova and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The search for four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during a scheduled training exercise near Pabradė, Lithuania, has shifted from rescue to recovery mission, according to Lithuania’s minister of defense.
The soldiers, who are all based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, went missing on Tuesday, the Army said, and the M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the soldiers were operating at the time was found submerged in water in a training area on Wednesday.
“Most likely, the M88 drove into the swamp,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told ABC News via phone on Thursday. “It has the capacity to swallow large objects … this vehicle, weighing up to 70 tons, may have just gone diagonally to the bottom.”
The vehicle may be 5 meters below the surface, Sakaliene said.
Crews are pushing through “a mix of muddy water and sludge” amid the “complicated” recovery, Sakaliene said.
“Hundreds of people are working around the clock — American armed forces, our rescue services and private companies,” Sakaliene said. “We have helicopters in the air, divers, firefighters, canal excavation machines — hundreds and hundreds of people.”
“Our Army divers are there, but even they are struggling,” Sakaliene said.
“We’ve narrowed the location down … but we still have to keep digging,” she said. “We brought a huge, long-range excavation machine and a canal cleaner to move the mud and water. Then we have to hook the vehicle, drag it out and see if there are bodies or materials inside.”
The search is also taking longer because the area is dangerous; a high-pressure gas pipeline runs under the ground where the Army vehicle sunk, Sakaliene said.
“We had to depressurize it before bringing in heavy equipment,” Sakaliene said. “We had to build a kind of alley, so the heavy machines could come through safely.”
Sakaliene said the Lithuanians will remain dedicated to the recovery.
“Working with American soldiers has always been close to our hearts,” she said. “They are not just allies — they are family to us.”
(LONDON) — Multiple people are dead and nearly two dozen injured after a tourism submarine crashed in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, officials said.
The crash occurred Thursday morning, less than a mile off the coast of Hurghada, during an underwater excursion to see the coral reef, according to the Russian consulate in Hurghada.
Six people — all Russian nationals — were killed, according to the Red Sea Gov. Gen. Amr Hanafy.
Twenty-three people were transported to area hospitals with injuries including wounds, bruises, sprains and shortness of breath, according to the governor. Four of the patients were in intensive care, he said.
The submarine was carrying 50 people total at the time, according to Hanafy. There were 45 tourists of various nationalities — including Russian, as well as Indian, Norwegian and Swedish — and five Egyptian crew members, he said.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident and are in communication with the crew, Hanafy said.
The submarine is owned by an Egyptian national and held a valid license and necessary certifications, according to Hanafy.
Hurghada is a popular tourist destination for beachgoers along the Red Sea and is well known for its scuba diving and snorkeling.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor and Nasser Atta contributed to this report.
