Escaped psychiatric patient arrested in France after three-week search

A 26-year-old man, who escaped from a psychiatric facility in Emmendingen, Germany, approximately three weeks ago, has been apprehended in France. German police confirmed the arrest occurred on Saturday evening in the greater Paris area.

The fugitive was taken into custody due to a European arrest warrant issued following his escape. While authorities have not released further details about the arrest, the man is currently detained in France. He had been convicted last year for attempted homicide after stabbing a resident in a refugee accommodation in November 2024 and injuring a police officer prior to his initial arrest.

He had failed to return from a supervised outing in the park of the Center for Psychiatry (ZfP) in Emmendingen at the beginning of May. The ZfP believes that he and another escaped patient, a 34-year-old Moroccan national, planned their escape together to flee abroad. Both individuals are described as French-speaking and from North Africa, and were housed on the same ward.

The second patient, who was serving a sentence for dangerous bodily harm, is still at large. Investigators assess that he intended to evade an impending deportation. The ZfP stated that neither patient had shown prior indications of planning an escape during previous supervised outings.