Cops safe entry to the crime scene after the Solingen metropolis competition on August 24, 2024 in Solingen, Germany.
Andreas Rentz | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife assault within the German metropolis of Solingen that killed three folks and wounded eight others.
Police have detained a youngster who could also be linked with a knife assault, however the perpetrator was nonetheless at giant on Saturday.
Describing the person who carried out the assault as a “soldier of the Islamic State”, the militant group mentioned in a press release on its Telegram account: “He carried out the assault in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and in every single place.”
It didn’t instantly present any proof for its assertion and it was not clear how shut any relationship between the attacker and Islamic State was.
Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, described Friday night’s assault throughout a competition within the metropolis as an act of terror.
Police had been conducting a manhunt for the assailant. They mentioned they’d detained a 15-year-old and had been investigating whether or not this particular person was linked to the attacker.
“This assault has struck on the coronary heart of our nation,” Wuest advised reporters.
Inside minister Nancy Faeser mentioned authorities had been doing all they may to catch the assailant.
The assault occurred within the Fronhof, a market sq. within the western German metropolis the place reside bands had been enjoying as a part of a competition marking the its 650th anniversary.
Markus Caspers, an official with the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Duesseldorf, mentioned authorities had been treating the assault as a potential terrorist incident as a result of there was no different recognized motive and the victims appeared unrelated.
A police official, Thorsten Fleiss, mentioned the assailant appeared to goal for his victims’ throats.
“The perpetrator should be shortly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the regulation,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X.
Police cordoned off the sq. on Saturday and passers-by positioned candles and flowers outdoors the limitations.
“We’re filled with shock and grief,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach advised journalists.
A German musician who goes by the title Matter mentioned he was enjoying on a close-by stage when the incident occurred. He was advised about what had occurred however was requested to maintain enjoying “to keep away from inflicting a mass panic assault”, he posted on Instagram.
He was finally advised to cease, and “because the attacker was nonetheless on the run, we hid in a close-by retailer whereas police helicopters circled above us,” Matter wrote.
Authorities cancelled the rest of the weekend competition.
Deadly stabbings and shootings are comparatively uncommon in Germany. The federal government mentioned earlier this month it wished to toughen guidelines on knives that may be carried in public by lowering the utmost size allowed.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman was fatally stabbed in Mannheim throughout an assault on a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing attack on a train in 2021 injured a number of folks.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s inside minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene in Solingen early on Saturday. He advised reporters it was a focused assault on human life.
Solingen, well-known for its knife manufacturing business, is a metropolis of some 165,000 folks.
The episode comes forward of three state elections subsequent month in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, by which the anti-immigrant far-right Various for Germany (AfD) has an opportunity of profitable.
Although the motive and id of the assailant weren’t recognized, a prime AfD candidate for one of many state elections, Bjoern Hoecke, seized on Friday’s assault, posting on X: “Do you actually wish to get used to this? Free yourselves and finish this madness of pressured multiculturalism”.
