Teenage girl killed in knife attack near German school

The attack took place in a town near Munich

Police found the suspect in a nearby building (Getty Images)

A 14-year-old girl has died and a 13-year-old girl was seriously injured following a knife attack by a man whilst they were on their way to school early on Monday.

German police in the southwestern city of Ulm said the girls were rushed to a hospital following the attack at about 7:30 am in the nearby town of Illerkirchberg - a town of around 5,000 people located to the west of Munich.

Police arrived at the scene to find that the suspect had fled to a neighbouring building. They later detained three men, one of whom is presumed to be the attacker.

Wolfgang Juergens, spokesperson for police in the German city of Ulm, gave local broadcaster SWR more information on the attack, saying: "Everything further will come out of the ongoing investigation.”

The motive for the attack is, as yet, unknown but German news agency dpa reported that police were still trying to determine a possible reason for the man’s actions.

The German newspaper Bild reported that the attacker had been arrested by police. It also said that the girls had been taken to hospital to have their injuries treated.

This isn’t the first knife attack on German soil this year, back in May, several people were wounded after a man attacked them with a knife on a passenger train near the to the western German city of Aachen.