The search for the perpetrator of the attack during the city’s “Festival of Diversity” on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of Solingen is ongoing. A spokeswoman for the Düsseldorf police reported on Saturday (24.08.2024) that three people died and eight were injured in the knife attack, including “five seriously”. The mayor of Solingen and the Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia are deeply moved and concerned by this act of violence.
Special units on site
Police said a “previously unknown man” attacked several people with a knife at around 9:40 p.m. on Friday evening. The police are still searching for the perpetrator and have “a large number of forces around the center of Solingen, including special units.” In an effort to find the attacker, “both victims and witnesses are being questioned.”
Special police forces secure the area around Fronhof, the market square in Solingen, where a murder took place during the town festival. Photo: Thilo Schmuelgen/REUTERS
“The crime is being treated as an attack,” a spokeswoman for the Düsseldorf police said. At the same time, she rejected media reports that the act had been classified as a “terrorist attack.” The spokeswoman did not comment on media reports that the attacker spoke Arabic.
The police have asked for help from the public. Information about the crime or the perpetrator can be sent to the police information portal (
A large-scale action
The Solingen police are being supported by officers from other parts of North Rhine-Westphalia. The crime scene has been “widely cordoned off.” Heavily armed police and forensic officers in white hazmat suits were seen there, an AFP photographer reported.
The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul – seen here talking to journalists – arrived at the crime scene that same night. Photo: Thomas Banneyer/dpa/picture alliance
Before the police announced the death toll, Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach (SPD) said on the city’s Facebook page that “there are now dead and injured” and several are still fighting for their lives: “Tonight, all of us in Solingen are in shock, horror and great sadness. It breaks my heart that our city has been attacked.”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) also expressed his shock: “An act of the most brutal and senseless violence has struck at the heart of our country. The whole of North Rhine-Westphalia stands with the people of Solingen, especially the victims and their families,” he wrote on the X website. He extended “great thanks” to “the many rescuers and police who are fighting to save human life in these minutes.”
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) immediately went to the scene of the crime. The perpetrator apparently stabbed random people, he told the ntv news channel. He could not yet say anything about the motive or the suspect. A clearly moved Herbert Reul spoke of a “terrifying event”.
The “Solinger Tageblatt” reported that one of the co-organizers of the city festival titled went on stage after the attack to interrupt the event on the Fronhof, a market square in the center of Solingen. He explained that the emergency services were fighting to save the lives of nine people. Festival goers were asked to leave the center of Solingen.
(AFP, DPA/jak)
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