An American man on Monday was sentenced to life in prison for committing rape, murder and attempted murder in an attack on two tourists near Neuschwanstein castle in Germany's southeastern state of Bavaria.

Presiding judge Christoph Schwiebacher said the offense was particularly serious, meaning the man would be unlikely to be eligible for parole after 15 years, as is usually the case in Germany.

The man admitted to the crimes during the start of the trial.

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of Germany's most visited sites, attracting around 1.5 million tourists a year.

What do we know about the attack?

The two female victims, who were also visitng from the US, were hiking in Germany in June last year.

The 31-year-old man met the pair on the trail and convinced them to follow him to a lookout point, after which he assaulted the youngest of the two, who was 21. When the 22-year-old woman intervened, he threw her down a slope.

Prosecutors say he then strangled the younger woman and raped her, and then also threw her down the slope after he was discovered by other tourists that arrived on the scene.

Both women had to be taken out of the area by helicopter. The younger woman later died of her injuries in hospital.

Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

sdi/nm (dpa, AFP)

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