Overview

• Iris Stalzer, 57, a Social Democratic mayor-elect in North Rhine-Westphalia, was found with multiple stab wounds outside her home and remains in life-threatening condition.
• Her 15-year-old adopted son and 17-year-old daughter called emergency services, and officers detained the boy at the scene and placed him in a forensic suit in the patrol car.
• Initial accounts passed to police said several men attacked her, but investigators have not corroborated that description.
• Il Messaggero, citing local reporting including Spiegel, says both teenagers were later taken into custody as police opened an attempted-homicide case and assigned a homicide unit.
• No motive has been officially established, with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reporting investigators are considering a personal background as Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for rapid clarity.