You can also listen to the article in audio version.
German police are still searching for the attacker who killed three people and injured eight others with a knife in Solingen, western Germany on Friday and has been on the run ever since. The police have arrested one person, but they are not the perpetrators. On Saturday night, she arrested another person during a raid at a refugee center.
The police also urged the residents of the city of Solingen to be careful. “People in the inner city area should be cautious,” said a police spokesman quoted by German media.
According to him, the police are searching for the attacker with great commitment, a number of units, including special units, have gathered in Solingen. At the same time, the victims and witnesses of the attacker’s rampage are questioned.
What happened in Solingen?
Solingen, home to approximately 160,000 people, celebrated its 650th anniversary on Friday. According to the newspaper Bild, the attack happened on Friday around 21:40 CEST in the city center. A man lunged at random passers-by with a knife.
The act took place in a market place called Fronhof, where there was a stage for live music. It was under the stage that the perpetrator was supposed to attack the visitors.
According to the investigators, the attacker aimed at the victim’s neck in a completely targeted manner. “After evaluating the first visual evidence, we assume that it was a very targeted attack on the neck,” said North Rhine-Westphalia state police chief Thorsten Fleiss.
One of the witnesses Lars Breitzke described for the local newspaper Solingen Daily Newspaperas he stood in front of the stage and found himself in close proximity to the attack. “And then suddenly one person just a meter away from me jumped,” he said. At first, he said, he thought it was a drunk. But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground in pools of blood. He himself remained unharmed.
What is known about the perpetrator?
The police do not rule out that the attacker may have had a terrorist motive, he probably acted alone, but investigators are not ruling out any version at the moment.
But police have not yet released a likeness of the suspect because they have conflicting information about what he looks like.
“The worst thing that could happen is that we put out a description, ask for the public’s help in the search, and during the course of the investigation it turns out that the person actually looks completely different,” explained a police spokesman.
However, witnesses had previously stated that the perpetrator had an Arab appearance. The newspaper Bild wrote that the police are looking for a man of “southern appearance” aged 20 to 30, 170 to 175 centimeters tall. The offender has an athletic build and a short, thick beard, was dressed in black and had a cap on his head.
According to the diary Bild the murder weapon was probably found in the afternoon. About 200 meters from the crime scene, investigators recovered the knife. Police later said they had recovered several knives and were investigating whether the murder weapon was among them.
List World on Sunday referring to the police report, he wrote that one of the injured knew the perpetrator and that the man used to go to the local mosque. According to the witness, the attacker also shouted “Allah Akbar”, which means God is great in Arabic.
The terrorist organization Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. “(Our fighter) carried out the attack in retaliation for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere,” the agency quoted the terrorists as saying Reuters. The group did not support their claim with any evidence.
Who are the other people arrested?
The police arrested the first person on Saturday morning. It concerns a fifteen-year-old youth who, according to investigators, did not report to the authorities that the perpetrator was planning an attack.
Witnesses according to server information Focus the arrested youth was overheard chatting with the alleged perpetrator, who was said to have said: “Today I will stab everyone.” The website of the Spiegel magazine, citing its sources, wrote that he was a Kyrgyz citizen who allegedly lived in a refugee center.
On Saturday evening, a special commando of the German police intervened in a refugee dormitory about 300 meters from the scene of the attack. A police spokesman for the agency DPA confirmed that another person was arrested in the raid.
According to earlier unconfirmed information from Bild, he is a Syrian. Spiegel writes that it should be a witness. Local newspaper Solinger Tagblatt noted that the arrested person was taken out the back entrance of the hostel.
Will Germany restrict the ability to carry knives?
The Federal Minister of the Interior has been planning to limit the possibility of carrying knives in public for a long time. German police register thousands of knife attacks each year.
Who are the victims of the attack?
Two men, aged 67 and 56, and a woman, aged 56, died, police said. Further details about the victims are not known.
Of the eight injured, four people were seriously injured. “We have seriously injured people – and we hope they will not be life-threatening soon,” Fleiss said.
The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no information that Czech citizens were among the victims of the attack in Solingen. He is in contact with the local police, ČTK reported.
What are the reactions to the attack?
German politicians at the regional and federal level are gradually reacting to the attack, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and express their condolences to the victims and their loved ones. “The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that upset me greatly,” the chancellor wrote.
“The security forces will do everything to catch the perpetrators and investigate the circumstances of the attack,” she assured Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser from the Social Democracy (SPD).
I am deeply saddened by the attack at the German festival in Solingen in which people were killed and injured. @OlafScholz please accept my sincere condolences. My thoughts and prayers are with German people.
— Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) August 24, 2024
Scholzovi pak kondoloval and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala. “I am deeply saddened by the attack on the German festival in Solingen, during which people died and were injured,” X wrote on the social network.
German Bundesliga footballers also honored the memory of the victims on Saturday. They entered the match with black armbands.
