On 24 July 2016, a Syrian asylum seeker armed with a döner knife attacked his girlfriend and bystanders in Reutlingen, Germany, killing his girlfriend, a Polish woman, and wounding two other people in the forearm and head, before being struck accidentally by a car and arrested by police.

[2] The attack took place around 16:30 CEST (14:30 UTC) by a kebab shop where the perpetrator, a 21-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker, and his 45-year old victim both worked, and from where he retrieved the weapon.

[13][14] This attack, one of four violent crimes, including the Ansbach bombing, committed by people of Middle Eastern background during the week of 18 July 2016 – three of them committed by asylum seekers – created significant political pressure for changes in the German government policy of welcoming refugees.

[16] Florian Otto, a risk consultant from Maplecroft, said the attacks are likely to inflame anti-immigration sentiment in the country, creating a challenge for the Merkel government's policies.

[15] In March 2017, Kenan Malik described the attack in the Guardian pointing up "the difficulty... in drawing a distinction between jihadi violence and the fury of disturbed minds.