Police officers secure access to the crime scene after the Solingen city festival on August 24, 2024 in Solingen, Germany.
Andreas Rentz | News Getty Images | Getty Images
The Islamic State group took responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack in the German town of Solingen that killed three people and injured eight others.
Police have arrested a teenager who may be linked to a knife attack, but the attacker was still at large on Saturday.
Describing the man who carried out the attack as an “Islamic State soldier”, the militant group said in a statement on its Telegram account: “He carried out the attack as revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
She did not immediately provide any evidence for her claim and it was unclear how close the link was between the attacker and Islamic State.
Hedrick West, prime minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, described the attack on Friday night during a festival in the city as an act of terror.
The police conducted a manhunt to locate the assailant. They said they had arrested a 15-year-old and are investigating whether that person is connected to the shooter.
“This attack struck at the heart of our country,” Wuest told reporters.
Interior Secretary Nancy Feiser said authorities were doing everything they could to catch the attacker.
The attack took place in the Fronhof, a market square in the western German city, where live bands were playing as part of a festival marking its 650th anniversary.
Markus Kaspers, a prosecutor’s official in Dusseldorf, said authorities were treating the attack as a possible terrorist incident because there was no other known motive and the victims appeared unrelated.
A police official, Thorsten Fleiss, said the attacker appeared to be aiming for the necks of his victims.
“The perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Chancellor Olaf Solz said. he said in a post in X.
Police cordoned off the square on Saturday and bystanders placed candles and flowers outside the barricades.
“We are full of shock and sadness,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurtzbach told reporters.
A German musician who goes by the name Topic said he was performing on a nearby stage when the incident happened. He was told what had happened but was told to continue playing “to avoid causing a mass panic attack,” he posted on Instagram.
He was eventually told to stop and “as the assailant was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled overhead,” Topic wrote.
Authorities canceled the rest of the weekend festival.
Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively rare in Germany. The government said earlier this month it wanted to tighten rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the maximum length allowed.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman fatally stabbed in Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration. A knife attack on a train in 2021 it injured several people.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Ruhl, visited the scene in Solingen early Saturday. He told reporters that it was a targeted attack on human lives.
Solingen, known for its knife manufacturing industry, is a city of approximately 165,000 inhabitants.
The episode is coming up three state elections next month in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, where the anti-immigrant far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has a chance of winning.
Although the motive and identity of the attacker were not known, a leading AfD candidate for one of the state elections, Bjoern Hoecke, seized on Friday’s attack, posting on X: “Do you really want to get used to this? Free yourself and end this insanity of forced multiculturalism.”
