One person has been killed and two seriously injured by a man with a sharp object at an electric utility company in south-central Germany.

A large contingent of emergency services were tending to the injured on Tuesday on the grounds of the Ueberlandwerke Rhoen company in the Bavarian town of Mellrichstadt, police said.

One person had died at the scene, they said.

The man, a 21-year-old German national, has already been taken into custody and there is no danger posed to the public, said police, who added there were no indications of a political or terrorist motive.

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