BERLIN: An attacker hit a former mayor of Berlin in the head with a bag in the latest in a rash of assaults against politicians in Germany, police said Wednesday.

The suspect came up behind Franziska Giffey to slug her in the head and neck at a library on Tuesday afternoon before running away, police said in a statement. Giffey, who is now Berlin state’s economy minister and a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was treated in hospital for light injuries.

Berlin’s current mayor Kai Wegner condemned the assault, saying anyone who attacks politicians are “attacking our democracy”.

“We will not tolerate this,” he said, vowing to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.