Officers in Borchen near Paderborn, North-Rhine Westphalia, were called to the incident on Friday morning after the 47-year-old man grabbed the boy near a bakery and hurt him with the axe.

The five officers demanded that he drop the axe, and when the agitated man refused, sprayed him with pepper spray – but he still did not let go of the weapon or the boy.

When they shot him in the leg, the boy ran away, but the man still refused to let go of the axe and they shot him again, hitting him with several bullets.

Despite his multiple wounds, the man was not fatally injured, and was taken to the hospital for treatment. The boy was also treated in hospital for wounds he suffered from the axe.