A knife-wielding man wounded two people in a southern German town on Thursday before being fatally shot by police who said they were investigating a possible "Islamist or terrorist context".

The 30-year-old man attacked several passers-by "with at least one knife", near the train station in Ansbach, a Bavarian town close to Nuremberg, according to local police.

Two people were injured but their lives were not in danger, the statement said.

When security forces intervened, the assailant "attacked the police" who opened fire and fatally wounded him, the statement added.

"The man shouted 'Allahu Akbar' several times during the commission of the crime," police said, adding that they were investigating "whether the crime had a link with an Islamist or terrorist context".