German court sends axe attacker to psychiatric hospital

BERLIN – A German court has sent a man who randomly attacked passengers with an axe at Duesseldorf’s main train station in March to a psychiatric hospital indefinitely.

The defendant, a 37-year-old from Kosovo, faced eight counts of attempted manslaughter in a trial at the Duesseldorf state court. But news agency dpa reported that judges ruled Friday he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the March 9 attack and couldn’t be held criminally responsible.

The man told a psychiatrist that voices had ordered him to carry out the attack and he had done it in hopes of being fatally shot by police. In all, 10 people were hurt.

The attack began on board a commuter train. A passenger was able to shove the assailant out of the train.