Berlin:

Several people were killed on Friday night when a man knifed passers-by at random at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, newspaper Bild reported.

Bild said the event occurred around 9:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) and that at least three people were dead and multiple people were wounded.

Witnesses said the perpetrator was at large, the paper added.

The local newspaper Solingen Tageblatt reported on its website that the attack occurred at a festival to honour the town’s 650 years.

Local police said they were not yet able to comment.

Local news reports said the stabbings occurred at the Fronhof, a market square in the town where live bands were playing.

Solingen is in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany’s most populous and bordering the Netherlands.

Fatal stabbings and shootings in Germany are relatively uncommon.

In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in the German city of Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration.

There was a stabbing attack on a train in 2021, injuring several.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)