THREE PEOPLE HAVE been killed and others injured in a knife attack in the German city of Wuerzburg, local police have confirmed.

“The attacker was overpowered after the police used firearms. There are several injured as well as fatalities,” the police said on Twitter.

Police said the suspect was a 24-year-old who was shot by police but has non-life threatening injuries. 

The suspect was armed with a large knife, police said, and he has since been arrested. 

The force added that there is no longer any danger to the public and more information will follow.

The police also appealed to people not to share photos or videos from the scene.

Police spokeswoman Kerstin Kunick said officers were alerted at around 5pm to a knife attack in Barbarossa Square in the centre of the city.

Bavaria’s governor Markus Soeder expressed shock at the news of the attack. “We grieve with the victims and their families,” he wrote on Twitter.

Bavaria’s top security official Joachim Herrmann was on his way to Wuerzburg, a city of about 130,000 people located between Munich and Frankfurt.