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The attack occurred Friday night during a festival commemorating the 650th anniversary of the city of Solingen.
A suspect in a Friday night knife attack in Germany that killed three people and wounded eight others has been arrested, officials said Saturday.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in the western German city of Solingen, where a celebration of the city’s anniversary had been taking place, officials said. Four of the six severely injured are still in life-threatening condition.
The suspect is a 26-year-old Syrian citizen, identified by the German Federal Prosecutor’s office as “Issa Al H.” He had applied for asylum in Germany, police told The Associated Press.
He turned himself into police on Saturday and “stated that he was responsible for the attack,” a joint statement from Dusseldorf Police and the prosecutor’s office said.
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement added.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s office took over investigation of the incident Sunday and “issued an arrest warrant and ordered the execution of pre-trial detention,” according to a statement.
The prosecutor’s office said the man is accused of three counts of murder and eight counts of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm, adding that he shares the ideology of the Islamic State and joined the organization before Friday.
“Due to his radical Islamist beliefs, he decided to kill as many people as possible, who he considered to be non-believers, at the Solingen city festival on August 23, 2024,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “There he stabbed festival visitors repeatedly and deliberately in the neck and upper body with a knife.”
The state interior minister of North-Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, said in a TV interview Saturday that pieces of evidence were recovered, and that police had followed leads to the individual throughout the day.
Reul confirmed that the suspect, based on his current knowledge, had stayed at a refugee shelter that was searched earlier in the day.
A 15-year-old and another man were previously arrested in connection with the attack. Police said they did not believe either of them were the attacker but both were questioned.
Investigators believed the 15-year-old, who was detained Saturday morning, may have had prior knowledge of the attack. Two witnesses told police after the attack that the 15-year-old had a conversation with another person about plans for an attack.
The Islamic State-run Amaq news agency released a statement Saturday saying the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the attack “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
Markus Röhrl, Wuppertal police president, said during a news conference Saturday that prior to the festival there was no concrete threat.
The attack happened Friday at 9:40 p.m. local time during a celebration for the city’s 650th anniversary. The “Festival of Diversity” began Friday and was to run through Sunday. Authorities have cancelled the remainder of the festival.
Reul told the press Friday the attacker came “out of nowhere” stabbed people randomly. The dead include one woman and two men, he said.
German DJ Tobias Topic wrote on Instagram that security personnel asked him to continue playing his set even as the attack was unfolding in order to prevent mass panic. He said he kept playing, “even though it was incredibly hard.”
NDC news