A NEWLY elected German mayor is reportedly fighting for her life after a brutal knife attack outside her home.
Iris Stalzer, 57, was allegedly stabbed 13 times in the stomach and back by “several men” in North Rhine-Westphalia.
APIris Stalzer, a newly elected German mayor, was stabbed multiple times outside her home[/caption]
APEmergency vehicles rushed to the scene in Herdecke, Germany[/caption]
Her son is said to have found the SPD politician seriously wounded inside her flat after Tuesday’s attack.
She reportedly told him she had been assaulted on the street before managing to get back indoors.
Emergency doctors are battling to save her, according to German outlets Bild and OVB.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear.
Police have since issued a major alert and launched a large-scale search for the culprits.
A homicide squad is expected to take over the case, local media reported.
Stalzer had only been elected mayor for a town in the Ruhr region in a runoff vote on September 28.
She narrowly won with 52.2% of the vote against centre-right Christian Democrat candidate Fabian Conrad Haas.
The stabbing comes shortly after an Albanian judge was shot dead inside his own courtroom.
A man on trial opened fire, killing the presiding judge and injuring two others during a heated property dispute hearing.
The gunman was identified by cops as E.Sh., who was a 30-year-old defendant in the case.
The judge was rushed to hospital after the horror Monday attack but “succumbed to his injuries on the way,” police confirmed.
The other side in the dispute — a father and son — were also hit and remain in hospital but are stable, officials said.
Local reports suggest the gunman opened fire because he believed he was about to lose the case.
Police arrested the shooter at the scene and seized the revolver used in the attack.
Meanwhile in Australia, a man was allegedly ambushed and hacked to death with a chainsaw in a bloody midnight attack.
Gordon Kessey, 44, was found dead in a park in Bega, New South Wales, after what police believe was a violent confrontation linked to drugs.
A second man remains in hospital fighting for his life in hospital.
Locals reported waking to the sound of yelling, screaming — and the chilling rev of a chainsaw — around 2am on Monday.