German Youth in Drunken Frenzy Stabs 28

BERLIN, May 27 (Reuters) — A knife-wielding German teenager in a drunken frenzy stabbed at people leaving a ceremony to dedicate Berlin's new central rail station just before midnight on Friday, injuring 28 before he was stopped.

The police said Saturday that six of those injured in the 10-minute attack on a crowded street in the center of Berlin were in serious condition. The teenager was quickly seized after witnesses pointed him out to security officials. The attack came as a shock to Germany less than two weeks before the World Cup soccer tournament opens in this country, and cast a shadow over the fireworks and celebrations to open the new station that some 500,000 people watched.

"It was a horrible act," said Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had already left the station's gala ceremony. "It's good to know that the Berlin police caught the assailant so quickly."

The attacker is a 16-year old German from Neukölln, a south Berlin district with a large immigrant population, and has a record for assault. The police said the teenager had acted on his own and was under the influence of alcohol. They said they were still investigating the motive.

One of the first victims was H.I.V. positive, the police said adding that they could not say if those stabbed after the first victim could also be infected. The police said the teenager knifed most of the people in the back and buttocks, although some suffered chest and stomach wounds.

The stabbing, which follows a string of attacks on dark-skinned people in eastern Germany that appear to be racially motivated, may fuel concerns about security at the month-long soccer tournament.

"I've never experienced a crime like this in the seven years that I've been in this job," said Ehrhart Körting, the senator in charge of the police in Berlin, the German capital, at a news conference on Saturday.

"This sort of attack does not usually happen in Berlin or in Germany," he added, noting the youth was not from a broken or troubled family. "It's horrifying to see how he developed. We need to think about violence in computer games and films."

State prosecutors said the teenager faces attempted murder charges. The attacks took place along a long stretch of crowded sidewalks in the government quarter between the Reichstag parliament building and Charite hospital -- which probably saved the lives of some of the more seriously wounded.