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Fingerprints ID knife-wielder as Irish ex-con

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Fingerprints ID knife-wielder as Irish ex-con
The A4 motorway was temporarily closed on Monday after the incident. Photo: DPA

UPDATE: German authorities confirmed on Thursday the man who knifed three people before being killed on a motorway in western Germany on Monday was Enda McLaughlin, an Irishman recently released from prison in Cork.

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Prosecutors in Aachen told The Local on Thursday afternoon they could now confirm the 27-year-old ex-convict's identity after receiving fingerprint comparisons from Irish police.

The Irish Mirror earlier reported that hints to McLaughlin's identity had been taken from documents on him which showed he had been released from Cork Prison. 

The deceased suspect has 23 previous convictions for assault and was released from prison on April 9th.

McLaughlin is thought to have began his knife rampage in the early hours of Monday morning, said police, when he got into a taxi in Heerlen, Netherlands and asked to be taken 20 kilometres across the German border to Aachen.

When asked to pay his fare at the end of the journey, he stabbed his driver, seriously injuring him, before fleeing the scene.

A few streets away he then approached and demanded money from a passenger who was getting into his car.

"When he didn't give it, he stabbed him several times, seriously injuring him," said Jost Schützeberg, spokesman for the state prosecutor in Aachen.   

Then the man got into another taxi and asked to be taken to Cologne - a journey of 100 kilometres.

On the way he asked the driver to stop at a rest stop on the A4 motorway at Weisweiler and Düren between Aachen and Cologne.

But when McLaughlin got out the taxi driver sped off, having been warned of the danger on his radio.

The suspect then attacked again, this time a truck driver from Lithuania who was resting in the motorway car park.

The driver was badly hurt and is now in a life-threatening condition, said Schützeberg.

Finally, McLaughlin was killed by passing car when he attempted to cross the A4 motorway on foot, said Schützeberg.

SEE ALSO: 'My son's ashes never arrived from Germany'

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