Son of former German president stabbed to death in Berlin

BERLIN. KAZINFORM - Fritz von Weizsaecker, son of former German President Richard von Weizsaecker, was killed in a lethal knife attack while lecturing at a hospital in Berlin on Tuesday evening, Xinhua reports.

Despite immediate reanimation attempts, the 59-year-old von Weizsaecker succumbed to his injuries, the Berlin police announced on Twitter.

A police officer who was present during the lecture «overpowered the attacker so that he could be arrested,» Berlin police stated. The police officer was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

The 57-year-old suspect had not previously been known to the police in Berlin, a spokesperson of the police in Berlin confirmed to Xinhua on Wednesday. A homicide squad has taken over the investigations.

At the request of the public prosecutor's office in Berlin, the suspect would be brought before an investigating judge on Wednesday.

Von Weizsaecker had a long career as a doctor. After working in Germany, Switzerland and the United States, he had become head physician of the internal medicine department at the Berlin Schlosspark hospital in 2005.

After serving as Berlin's mayor, von Weizsaecker's father Richard von Weizsaecker had been German federal president from 1984 to 1994.