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German mayor stabbed in neck for pro-refugee stance, saved by kebab shop owner

Related Topics: Germany, Kebab shop

Berlin • A German mayor who had won accolades for his welcoming approach to refugees was recovering Tuesday after being stabbed in the neck in an attack that authorities said was politically motivated.

Andreas Hollstein, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, was at a kebab shop in the west German town of Altena on Monday evening when a man asked if he was the mayor, shouted criticisms of his asylum policies and then lunged with a foot-long blade.

Hollstein was treated at the local hospital and released. At a news conference Tuesday, he credited the kebab shop owner, Abdullah Demir, as well as Demir's wife and son, with intervening to save his life.