German police have confirmed a second arrest in connection with the Solingen attacks, which resulted in the fatal stabbing of three people and eight more injured. The second arrest, whose arrest was confirmed shortly before 10pm on Saturday, is believed to be the alleged perpetrator of the massacre, claimed by the Islamic State.
The arrest took place after a police operation at a refugee shelter located just 300 metres from the scene of the incident. According to the authorities on Sunday, the main suspect in the attack is a 26-year-old Syrian man who turned himself in to the police and admitted the crime. “The involvement of this person is being intensively investigated,” said a statement released by the police and prosecutors in Dusseldorf.
The suspect is affiliated with the refugee shelter that was registered on Saturday. Der Spiegel, citing unnamed security sources, says his clothes were stained with blood. The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the investigation.
The authorities are still cordoning off the scene.
VOLKER HARTMANN / EFE
Earlier in the afternoon, German police arrested a 15-year-old boy suspected of having had prior knowledge of the attack. According to police spokesman Thorsten Fleiss, the first person arrested, despite knowing about the plan, did not act to prevent it. Several German media outlets have revealed that he spoke to the attacker before the incident, but investigators believe that he is not the perpetrator of the massacre, who has now been arrested.
A forensic team investigates a crime scene in Solingen, Germany
Getty Images
At least three people were killed (two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman) and eight were injured, four of whom are fighting for their lives, after being stabbed on Friday night by a man during the Diversity Festival in the German city of Solingen, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
At around 9.40pm local time, a man of unknown identity began stabbing people indiscriminately in Fronhof, a market square in the city centre where a stage had been set up. Following the incident, the festival was suspended and security forces set up a security perimeter. “Tonight we are all in a state of shock, horror and great sadness in Solingen. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have deaths and injuries to mourn,” wrote the mayor of the Ruhr municipality, Tim-Oliver Kurzbach, on the website of the town.
Police are searching for the attacker who fled the scene
Gianni Gattus / Ap-LaPresse
Solingen, a municipality with more than 150,000 inhabitants, is located near Düsseldorf and north of Cologne. According to the local daily Solinger Tageblatt, shortly after 10 p.m., a member of the organization went on stage to interrupt the celebrations that had begun in the evening with a light show accompanied by concerts in a square in the city. The organizer reported that the emergency services were trying to save the lives of several people and invited the thousands of visitors to leave the place peacefully.
“People left the square in shock but calmly,” Philipp Müller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper. Another witness said that he was standing just a few metres from the attack and could tell from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong. “And then, a metre away from me, a person fell,” said the man, Lars Breitzke, who thought it was a case of a fainting spell due to too much alcohol. But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground and several pools of blood.
At least three dead in multiple stabbings in the German city of Solingen
The German musician, known by the name Topic, said he was playing on a nearby stage when the incident occurred. He was informed of what had happened but asked to keep playing “to avoid causing a mass panic attack,” he posted on Instagram. He was eventually told to stop and “as the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby tent while police helicopters circled overhead,” Topic wrote.
Police have deployed a large number of officers around Solingen’s historic centre to try to find the perpetrator. They are questioning victims and witnesses. They have also asked the public to provide any clues or images of the attack via a website created for this purpose, in an attempt to strengthen the search criteria. According to several eyewitnesses, the attacker had a beard and was dressed in black.
The authorities have also urged residents to stay at home if possible and avoid walking through the city centre. “The attacker stabbed people at random. That is why we are now assuming that this was an attack,” said Commissioner Sascha Kresta, a spokesman for the Wuppertal police, who said that according to his information the attacker had deliberately tried to injure the victims in the neck area.
The outpouring of condemnation was not long in coming. The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, has assured that the German state “is united in shock and sadness” in the face of what he has called an “act of terror.” “In these dark hours, the hearts and minds of the people of our state and beyond are in Solingen, where a brutal and senseless act of violence has struck the heart of our state,” he lamented through his X account, thanking the rescue teams and the police deployed in the area.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also expressed his “shock” and wished the injured a speedy recovery. “The perpetrator must be quickly arrested and punished to the full extent of the law,” he added on the same social network. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that security forces were doing everything possible to “arrest the perpetrator and clarify the background of the attack,” according to a brief statement.
On alert
Double terror threat in Germany
German authorities have been on alert in recent years in response to a dual terrorist threat: jihadism and right-wing extremism. The deadliest jihadist attack on German soil dates back to December 2016: a truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group left 12 dead at a Christmas market in central Berlin.
At the end of May, another attack took place in Mannheim (west), against an anti-Islamic demonstration. This time it was carried out by a 25-year-old Afghan who had arrived in Germany in 2014, who fatally stabbed a policeman and injured five others.
The festivities in Solingen, which were due to last until Sunday this year to coincide with the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding, were cancelled in the aftermath. Called the “Festival of Diversity”, the event was to offer three days of music, theatre and dance.
Solingen happened to be the scene of a neo-Nazi attack three decades ago that shocked the entire country. Five people, including three children, died in a fire in a building inhabited by Turkish residents. Since then, the local authorities have been promoting the diversity and multiculturalism of the municipality.
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