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While a man randomly stabs people in Solingen (North Rhine-Westphalia), DJ Topic is on stage. That same night, he speaks out in shock.
Solingen – The crime in Solingen has caused horror throughout Germany. Late on Friday evening (23 August) there was a knife attack at a festival celebrating the city’s 650th anniversary. Three people died and eight were injured – five of them seriously (as of 24 August, 11.30 a.m.). DJ Topic was right in the middle of it all, having been on stage at the time of the crime and celebrating with the guests. He himself was born in Solingen and describes the terrible scenes from the scene on Instagram.
DJ reports on knife attack in Solingen – security asked him not to cancel his performance
DJ Topic, whose real name is Tobias Topic, got in touch that night – two hours after the fatal knife attack in Solingen, as he himself says. He was at home with his parents at the time. In a story, he reports on the terrible events of the evening. “I had a really wonderful concert with the Bergisches Orchester today, everything went unbelievably,” the 32-year-old begins.
DJ Topic, real name Tobias Topic, comes from Solingen. He was DJing in his hometown on Friday evening, while a man was randomly stabbing people. © Montage: Instagram/@topic/Christoph Reichwein/dpa
He then spontaneously started playing, but after “ten, fifteen minutes” someone came up to him on stage. The person said that there had been a knife attack nearby. But security asked him not to stop. “Please just carry on, we don’t want mass panic,” one of the employees is said to have said to the DJ. He followed the instruction.
“I acted as if nothing had happened.” Even though it was “incredibly hard” for him. But that only worked for another twenty minutes, he says. The music was suddenly turned off, then, according to him, someone came on stage again. “We already have three dead, ten are being resuscitated and the perpetrator is still on the run,” the person is said to have told Topic. The partygoers at the festival were also eventually informed.
Perpetrators on the run, special units in the city: The pictures from Solingen after the attack
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DJ Topic reports from Solingen that night – “You are so close to a mass murderer, it’s unbelievable”
Topic said he was shocked and deeply affected by the terrible incident. “My thoughts go out to all the victims and their families.” “It is unbelievable that something like this could happen at a city’s 650th anniversary.”
Close friends of his with their small children only “got close to it.” “I’m so shocked,” says the Solingen resident, helicopters can be heard in the background. They are searching for the perpetrator, who fled shortly after the attack. The fact that it hit a small town like Solingen leaves him speechless. “I’m sitting here at the window, where I grew up as a child, and suddenly there are helicopters flying around and you’re so close to a mass murderer, it’s unbelievable.”
In a long post, he describes the events and his condolences again in English. “It seems that the attacker was aiming at people’s necks and trying to kill everyone indiscriminately,” he writes. “I still can’t believe it, it was supposed to be a festival for everyone.” “What is happening in this world?” he writes at the end, expressing his condolences again.
In the meantime, the first demands have been made by politicians. Berlin’s mayor Wegner is calling for a general knife ban to prevent such attacks in the future. (asc)
