A police officer stands as a vehicle drives away after a man was taken into custody after he stabbed several people at a city festival, in Solingen, Germany, on August 24, 2024. | Photo credit: Reuters
German police arrested a second man on Saturday (August 24, 2024) knife attack which took the lives of three people at a street festival, Attack by Islamic State group It was described as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere”.
The unidentified knifeman fled after the attack in the western city of Solingen late Friday night (August 23, 2024), prompting a manhunt.
In a statement on Telegram, IS Amaq The propaganda arm said that “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the German city of Solingen yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State”.
IS said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Palestine and Muslims everywhere”, an apparent reference to Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This claim has not yet been confirmed. German officials had earlier said that “Terrorist motive cannot be ruled out” for this act.
a police spokesman said AFP Authorities made the latest arrest at a refugee hostel in the western city of Solingen, a short distance from the site of Friday’s attack.
He did not reveal the identity of the arrested person or his connection to the attack.
Earlier on Saturday (August 24, 2024), a prosecutor said a first person had been arrested: a 15-year-old teenager suspected of failing to report a criminal act.
Markus Caspers, the prosecutor in Dusseldorf, west of Solingen, said witnesses had reportedly seen the teenager discussing something with a man who may have been the knifeman just before the incident.
The dead included men aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman, officials said.
“The victims were completely unknown and there was no known relationship between them,” Mr Caspers said at a press conference.
Officials said four of the injured were in “critical” condition, down from earlier estimates of five.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the culprit “must be caught quickly and punished”.
The attacker struck as thousands of people gathered for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity,” part of a series of events celebrating Solingen’s 650th anniversary.
High terrorism alert
A high alert has been issued for potential Islamist attacks in Germany following a series of atrocities.
Interior Minister Nancy Fesser said the threat of Islamist plots had “increased significantly” since the war in Gaza began on 7 October, warning that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.
Jihadists have carried out a number of attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12 people.
In May, a police officer was killed and five people were injured in a knife attack at a right-wing rally in the city of Mannheim that was suspected to have Islamist motives.
The killing began on Friday as thousands of people gathered in front of the stage for the first night of the festival.
Witness Lars Breitzke told Solinger Tagblatt According to the paper he was a few metres away from the attack, not far from the stage, and “could tell from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.
“And then, a man fell down a metre away from me,” said Mr Breitzke, who at first thought it might be someone who had drunk too much.
When he turned around, other people were lying on the ground soaked in blood.
Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said the entire city was in “shock, fear and deep mourning.”
Ms. Fesser called on the country to “remain united” during a visit to the site of the tragedy, condemning “those who spread hatred.” “We must not be divided,” she said.
knife series
Solingen is a city of around 150,000 people located between Düsseldorf and Cologne.
People gathered in the city on Friday evening for music and events on the first day of the three-day “Festival of Diversity”.
It was expected to attract over 75,000 visitors.
Philipp Müller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper that after the attack, “people left the scene in shock but calmly”, adding that the remainder of the festival was cancelled.
Mr Scholz’s left-wing coalition faces regional elections next week in the east of the country, where the right-wing AfD is strongly leading in the polls.
Germany took in more than one million refugees in 2015-2016, at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis.
The arrival was extremely divisive in Germany and led to a surge in the popularity of the AfD.