Four killed at German hospital, employee arrested

Police officers stand near the Oberlin Clinic, where four people were found dead and another seriously injured, following the arrest of a 51-year-old-woman, in Potsdam, Germany, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

Police in Germany detained a 51-year-old hospital employee and opened a murder inquiry after four people were found dead and another seriously injured at a clinic near Berlin.

Police said they had arrived around 9 p.m. on Wednesday to find people with fatal injuries in several rooms of a ward at the Oberlin Clinic, a specialist orthopaedic hospital in Potsdam, capital of Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin.

"On the basis of the available information, all the victims' injuries were the result of serious violence by a third party," the police said in a statement.

Police officers stand near the Oberlin Clinic, where four people were found dead and another seriously injured, following the arrest of a 51-year-old-woman, in Potsdam, Germany, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

The regional Tagesspiegel newspaper said they had been attacked with a knife. It said the victims were patients, some of whom had disabilities severe enough to need respiratory support.

Citing police sources, the newspaper said the suspect had told her husband on arriving home that she had killed people that day, whereupon he called the police.

There was no information regarding any motive.

Director of the Association of Deaf people in Berlin & Brandenburg Steffen Helbing and his wife Gerlinde hold placards reading "Why murder innocent disabled people?'' and "Our sincere condolences'' near the Oberlin Clinic, where four people were found dead and another seriously injured, following the arrest of a 51-year-old-woman, in Potsdam, Germany, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Kim Coghill)

A person walks past the Oberlin Clinic, where four people were found dead and another seriously injured, following the arrest of a 51-year-old-woman, in Potsdam, Germany, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi

Director of the Association of Deaf people in Berlin & Brandenburg Steffen Helbing puts a candle at a makeshift altar outside the Oberlin Clinic, where four people were found dead and another seriously injured, following the arrest of a 51-year-old-woman, in Potsdam, Germany, April 29, 2021. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi