A 41-year-old Syrian Muslim migrant armed with a large machete, launched a terror attack in the city of Essen in western Germany on Saturday night, injuring 31 German citizens, including eight children. Two of these children, ages 2 and 4, are in critical condition.

Gript A Syrian Muslim migrant has been accused of causing injury to multiple people, including children, after he allegedly set two apartment blocks on fire before ramming a grocery shop with a vehicle, and brandishing a machete. 

The man has been identified as a 41-year-old Shadi. A, who came to Germany in 2015 as part of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s acceptance of over one million Syrian migrants.

It was reported that the incident unfolded on Saturday at 5:10pm when residents of Pielstickerstraße in Essen’s Altenessen district noticed thick smoke billowing from an apartment block. Footage of the incident shows small children being lowered out of the windows of the buildings with locals using ladders to reach them. 

A second apartment block in Zollvereinstrasse,  some 3km away, is also reported to have been set  on fire.

Shadi A, who was wearing a Palestine flag and an Islamic keffiyeh at the time of the alleged incident,  is also accused of  ramming a delivery truck into a food shop on Katernbergerstrasse, before exiting the vehicle armed with a knife and machete and assaulting people with his machete. Videos show brave residents overpowering the assailant until police arrived.

Police in Germany recently arrested a Syrian national who is accused of planning a machete attack on soldiers. The man obtained two machetes, each approximately 40 cm (15.75 inches) long as part of an alleged plot to attack Bundeswehr soldiers in Hof who were spending their lunch break with the aim of killing as many of them as possible. 

In August, an ISIS-affiliated failed Syrian asylum seeker who was to be deported allegedly killed three people and wounded eight in a knife attack on Germany’s Solingen at a festival celebrating diversity.