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Associated Press

Reuters

Agence France-Presse

Police hunted on Saturday for an unknown assailant hours after he killed three people and wounded others in a stabbing attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen.
Eight were injured, five of them seriously, the police said in a statement early on Saturday. That was up from the four serious injuries the police reported earlier.
“Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned. The police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large team,” police said.
The incident occurred around 9:40pm on Friday, when the man attacked multiple people with a knife, the police said, adding that the motive remained unclear.
Special forces were helping security personnel in the city centre while a helicopter flew overhead, according to on journalist.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator” of the “horrific act”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying in a post on X: “The perpetrator must be quickly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
The attack occurred at the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen where live bands were playing. It was during a festival marking the 650th anniversary of the city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands.

The German musician who goes by the name Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the incident occurred. He was told about what happened but was asked to continue “to avoid causing a mass panic attack”, he posted on Instagram.
He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” Topic wrote.
Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.
Local reporters quoted Celine Derikartz, a journalist covering the festival, as saying that “the atmosphere is spooky”. She said the party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and she saw festivalgoers weeping.
The “Festival of Diversity”, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The city cancelled the rest of the festival after the attack. Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf.
The perpetrator aimed specifically for peoples’ throats, one police spokesperson said. A second spokesperson later would not confirm or deny that detail, and pointed to a news conference scheduled for the afternoon.
Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively uncommon in Germany. The government said earlier this month it wanted to toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the maximum length allowed. Faeser proposed laws to only allow knives with a blade measuring up to 6cm (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12cm (4.7 inches) that is allowed now.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing attack on a train in 2021 injured several.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene early on Saturday. “None of us knows why” the attack took place, said Reul. “I can’t say anything about the motive now” and it isn’t clear who the assailant was, he said, but the attacker left the scene “relatively quickly”.
At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post, “This evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
Additional reporting by Agence-France Presse


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Knife attacker kills 3, wounds 8 at festival in German city of Solingen

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Forensic police inspect the area where at least three people were killed and several injured in Solingen, Germany, on Friday. Photo: AFP

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Police say the lone attacker is on the run, but have little information on the motive for the crime


Police say the lone attacker is on the run, but have little information on the motive for the crime.


Crime