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DJ Topic was on stage at the city festival in Solingen when he heard about the deadly attack just a few meters away. He reacted emotionally on Instagram.
Solingen – His show was considered one of the highlights of the city festival in Solingen, but now the performance is linked to the terrible knife attack in which at least three people were killed. Star DJ Topic, a native of Solingen, describes in an emotional Instagram post how he found out about the attacks in front of his stage and how he reacted.
“Please just carry on”: DJ Topic on stage during knife attack in Solingen
Friday evening, just after half past nine in Solingen city centre: the atmosphere on the central market square is great. Nobody suspects what is about to happen in front of the stage. Nobody can suspect something like that. Not even Tobias Topic, the DJ and music producer known as Topic or Topic42. But then everything changes.
DJ Topic, here at a performance in Hamm, was on stage in Solingen when the perpetrator killed three people. © Robert Szkudlarek
“During my set, city security personnel came to me and asked me to keep playing to prevent a mass panic because people had already been stabbed by an attacker,” Topic wrote on his Insta account shortly after midnight. “So I kept playing, even though it was incredibly hard,” Topic continued. After ten to 15 minutes, the music stopped and the visitors were informed.
Because the perpetrator, whose identity and motive were initially unknown, was able to escape in the chaos, DJ Topic hid in a nearby shop “while police helicopters circled above us.”
DJ Topic on the Solingen incident: “Still unbelievable, really.”
The events in his hometown have clearly affected him: “Really close friends of mine, some with small children, passed by it by a whisker, who knows, minutes, seconds…” An Insta video shows Topic standing at the window of a house where he grew up. At this point, the police helicopters are still in the air. “I am so shocked. You know this kind of picture from other countries, but we are here in Solingen. My thoughts go out to all the victims and families who are affected by this. Still unbelievable, really.”
The attack in Solingen shocked people far beyond Solingen and North Rhine-Westphalia. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst spoke of an “act of the most brutal and senseless violence.” Olaf Scholz and other top politicians also commented on the attack in Solingen. The Chancellor wrote on X that he was “very dismayed” by the incident in Solingen. The perpetrator must be “quickly caught and punished to the full extent of the law,” Scholz added. “We mourn the victims and stand by their relatives.”
