Assailant armed with knife attacks patients, staff at Jewish hospital in Berlin

Police shot an assailant armed with a knife in a Jewish hospital in Berlin on Friday afternoon, Berlin police said.

The assailant, 45, attacked patients and staff at the scene, police said. A report by the the German tabloid newspaper B.Z. described the attacker as "mentally confused."

Hospital employees alerted police to the incident at around 2:30 p.m., where they described a man rampaging at one of the wards, according to the Berlin police report. The man was reportedly threatening doctors and patients with a knife, B.Z. reported, and cited a police spokesman saying that the assailant would not comply to demands to put the knife down.

Police shot the assailant in the leg, and he is being treated by paramedics and is in stable condition. There are no other reported injuries other than the attacker.

Attacker was undergoing treatment for addiction at the hospital

Police are currently investigating the incident, where they learned that the man was a patient in one of the hospital's wards and was undergoing treatment for addiction. Police also stated that a homicide commission has taken over the investigation procedure.

For the treatment of his wounds, the assailant was taken to another ward in a patient bed across the hospital grounds, according to B.Z. One patient at the scene told the German tabloid that they heard screams from the ward where the incident took place, with doctors and nurses running out of the building before police arrived.