Police officer stands, as a vehicle leaves, after a person was detained, following an incident in which several individuals were killed after a man randomly stabbed passers-by with a knife at a city festival, in Solingen, Germany on August 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

German police on Saturday (August 24, 2024) arrested the suspect behind a knife rampage that left three people dead at a local festival in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The assailant fled after striking in the western town of Solingen late on Friday (August 23, 2024), sparking a day-long manhunt.

“We have just arrested the true suspect,” North Rhine-Westphalia region Interior Minister Herbert Reul said on public television late Saturday evening.

“The man we have been looking for all day has, since a short time ago, been [put] in detention,” he said, adding that police had evidence to convict him.

In a statement on Telegram, IS’s Amaq propaganda arm said “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State”.

IS said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”, in an apparent reference to Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The claim has yet to be verified. German officials have said that “a terrorist motive cannot be excluded”.

According to the newspapers Bild and Spiegel, the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had been granted a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing the war-torn country.

He was not previously known to the security services as an extremist, the outlets reported.

A police spokesman had told AFP earlier that officers had arrested a man in a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of Friday’s attack.

Earlier on Saturday (August 24, 2024), a prosecutor said a first person was arrested: a 15-year-old suspected of failing to report a criminal act.

Witnesses had allegedly seen the teen discussing the attack just before it happened with a man who could be the knifeman, said Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf, just west of Solingen.

The people killed were men of 56 and 67 years of age and a 56-year-old woman, officials said.

“The victims were completely unknown with no known ties between them,” Mr. Caspers told a press conference.

Four of the wounded were in a “serious” condition, officials said, revising down an earlier estimate of five.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the perpetrator “must be caught quickly and punished”.

The attacker struck as thousands of people gathered for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity”, part of a series of events to mark Solingen’s 650th anniversary.

High terror alert

Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks after a series of atrocities.

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7, the risk of Islamist plots has “worsened considerably”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, warning that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

Jihadists have carried out several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12.

A police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in the city of Mannheim in May, with an Islamist motive suspected.

Friday’s killing started as thousands of people had gathered in front of a stage for the festival’s first night.

Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt newspaper he was a few metres away from the attack, not far from the stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.

“And then, a metre away from me, a person fell,” said Mr. Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had had too much to drink.

When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.

Solingen mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said the whole city was in “shock, horror and great grief”.

Ms. Faeser called for the country to “remain united” as she denounced “those who want to stir up hatred” during a visit to the site of the tragedy. “Let us not be divided”, she said.

Series of knifings

Solingen is a city of some 1,50,000 people located between Duesseldorf and Cologne.

People had gathered in the town on Friday evening for the first day of the three-day “Festival of Diversity” with music and shows scheduled.

Up to 75,000 visitors had been expected to attend.

After the attack, “people left the scene in shock, but calmly,” Philipp Mueller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper, adding that the rest of the festival was cancelled.

Mr. Scholz’s centre-left coalition faces regional elections next week in the east of the country, where the far-right AfD is leading strongly in the polls.

Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis.

The influx was deeply divisive in Germany and fuelled the popularity of the AfD.

A woman writes on a placard near tributes placed on the ground following an incident in which several individuals were killed after a man randomly stabbed passers-by with a knife at a city festival, in Solingen, Germany, on August 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Special police units on Saturday (August 24, 2024) joined the search for an unknown man who carried out a stabbing attack at a crowded festival in the western German city of Solingen, killing three people and wounding at least eight others, five of them seriously.

Markus Caspers, from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutors office, told a news conference on Saturday (August 24, 2024) that authorities have not found the perpetrator. He said a terrorist motivation could not be ruled out.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday (August 24, 2024). Police said he was suspected of knowing about the planned attack and not informing authorities but he was not the attacker.

“The police are currently conducting a large-scale search for the perpetrator,” police said in a statement. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned,” they said.

Police warned people to stay vigilant even as wellwishers started to leave flowers at the scene. Police established an online portal where witnesses could upload footage and any other information relevant to the attack.

People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday (August 23, 2024) to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker and gave no information about the identities of the victims.

“Last night our hearts were torn apart. We in Solingen are full of horror and grief. What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep,” the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, said, speaking to reporters on Saturday (August 24, 2024) near the scene of the attack.

The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday (August 23, 2024) and was supposed to run through Sunday (August 25, 2024), with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage. Hours after the attack, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators looked for clues in the cordoned-off square.

One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage on Friday (August 23, 2024) and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.” Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.

The rest of the festival was cancelled.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday (August 24, 2024) that the perpetrator of the attack must be caught quickly and punished with the full force of the law.

“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I have just spoken to Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” Mr. Scholz said on X.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also spoke to the mayor of Solingen on Saturday (August 24, 2024) morning.

“The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn those killed and worry about those injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery from all my heart,” Steinmeier said in a statement on Saturday. (August 24, 2024).

“The perpetrator needs to be brought to justice. Let’s stand together — against hatred and violence.”

There has been concern about increased knife violence in Germany, and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6cm to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12cm that is currently allowed.