A chilling incident in which a young boy and his mother were pushed in front of a high-speed train by an Eritrean man has sent shock waves across Germany and seemingly rekindled anti-migrant sentiment.

The tragedy took place on one of the platforms of the central railway terminal in the German city of Frankfurt – the nation’s second busiest railway hub. An eight-year-old boy and his mother were waiting for a train when they were suddenly attacked by a 40-year-old Eritrean. The assailant grabbed the woman and the child and threw them on the rail tracks right as the high-speed intercity express (ICE) was pulling into the station.

The 40-year-old woman managed to escape near-certain death as she made it to the pathway between two tracks. She tried to reach out to her son when the train ran over him, a witness told German media. The boy died at the scene.

The terrible scene left everyone at the station shaken. The ambulances that arrived shortly had to hospitalize some who were suffering from shock and horror. The boy’s mother was also hospitalized, though there has been no information on her condition.

The perpetrator also tried to force another person onto the railway tracks but his third would-be victim escaped. The attacker then attempted to flee the scene but was pursued by a group of passengers and eventually detained by police outside the terminal.

The motive of the attack remains unclear. Police say the suspect deliberately assaulted the woman and the boy, and they are treating the incident as a homicide. The assailant had no personal connections to his victims, and little is known about him besides his Eritrean (right above Ethiopia - Africa) citizenship. According to some reports, he came to Switzerland in 2006, and has lived there since.