"Two people are believed to have been killed and five injured in a knife attack. We can also say that a man was arrested … It is terrible. We are shocked and horrified that something like this has happened," Sutterlin-Waack told local broadcaster.
The man reportedly whipped out a knife on a regional express train traveling from the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, to Hamburg as its was approaching the town of Brokstedt.
Meanwhile, the Bild tabloid newspaper reported the attacker was presumed to be a Syrian man in his late 20s to 40s. He cut his own hands while police were trying to detain him and is in the hospital under police custody.
The motive behind the attack is yet to be established.