At least four people were severely injured in an attack at a gym in the western German city of Duisburg, police said Tuesday evening, according to The Associated Press.
The incident occurred in the old city of Duisburg and police asked residents to stay at home and avoid the area. They said a large number of officers were at the scene of the attack, right across from the city hall.
“According to current information, one person has injured other people with an object” at a gym, Duisburg police tweeted. “The situation is currently still confusing.”
Police later said that a “stabbing or cutting weapon” was used in the attack, but did not provide any further details.
The attacker appeared to still be on the loose, German news agency dpa reported.
Several victims were taken to a hospital, while investigators searched the gym, dpa reported.
Helicopters were hovering above the gym and psychologists were brought in to help shocked witnesses.
The president of the German parliament, Baerbel Bas, who is from Duisburg, expressed shock over the attack.
“Terrible. My thoughts are with the injured,” Bas tweeted. “I hope that the emergency services will soon be able to clear up the threatening situation.”
The motive behind the incident remains unclear, but Germany has been hit by several terrorist attacks in recent years.
The worst such attack took place in December of 2016, when Tunisian terrorist Anis Amri killed 12 people and injured dozens more when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.
In 2019, a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. When he failed to enter the synagogue, he murdered two passersby.

In an attack in 2021, a knife-wielding attacker killed one tourist and seriously injured another in the city of Dresden.
In January, a knife-wielding man described as a “stateless Palestinian” fatally stabbed two people and injured seven others on a train traveling from Kiel to Hamburg before he was arrested.