The Knife in the Fan Zone - Schlossplatz
On 26 June 2024, during the Euro 2024 public viewing of Czechia against Turkey on this palace square, a man slipped a knife past the fan zone checks and attacked six fans in Turkish colours, wounding three, one critically; in February 2025 he was sentenced to nine and a half years.
Su questo luogo
The Schlossplatz is Stuttgart's grandest stage. The baroque New Palace, begun in 1746 for Duke Carl Eugen, closes it to the east, the colonnaded Königsbau lines it to the west, and in the middle the Jubilee Column, raised in the 1840s for King Wilhelm I's 25 years on the throne, carries Concordia, the Roman goddess of harmony. On the evening of 26 June 2024 the square was the official Euro 2024 fan zone, and around 23,000 people came to watch the games, most of them Turkish fans following Czechia against Turkey. At 22:43, late in the second half, a man in his twenties stabbed a fan in Turkish colours from behind and, in roughly 90 seconds, went after six men in Turkish fan gear. Three were wounded, one of them critically, and the most badly injured man needed five operations in thirteen days. An off-duty police officer in the crowd seized him and brought him to the ground, and he was arrested on the spot. His knife, with a blade just seven centimetres long, had slipped through the bag checks and body searches at the gates, and how exactly is still unclear. On 10 February 2025 the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced him to nine and a half years for three attempted murders and three attempted manslaughters; the prosecution had asked for thirteen. The judges found no proof of the hatred of Turks alleged in the indictment, so his motive remains an open question. Today nothing on these lawns recalls that night.
Fatti principali
- 6 men attacked — In about 90 seconds the attacker went after six men in Turkish fan gear; three were wounded, one of them critically.
- 7 cm blade — The knife that slipped through the fan zone's bag checks and body searches had a blade just seven centimetres long.
- 9.5 years in prison — The sentence handed down by the Stuttgart Regional Court on 10 February 2025 for three attempted murders and three attempted manslaughters.