Police officers secure access to the crime scene after the Solingen city festival on August 24, 2024 in Solingen, Germany.
Andreas Rentz Getty Images News | Getty Images
Police were hunting Saturday for an unidentified assailant hours after he killed three people and injured another in a stabbing attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen.
Eight were injured, five of them seriously, the police said in an initial statement on Friday. That’s up from four serious injuries reported by police earlier.
“Victims and witnesses are now being questioned. The police are now looking for the perpetrators with a large team,” the police said.
The incident happened around 9:40 local time on Friday, when the man attacked several people with a knife, police said.
The perpetrators specifically aimed for people’s throats, police added. He could not provide further details or a motive.
“Our security authorities are doing everything possible to arrest the perpetrators and investigate the background of the attack,” said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a post on X.
The attack took place in the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen where live bands play. It was during a festival to celebrate 650 years of the city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands.
A German musician named Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the incident happened. He was told about the incident but asked to continue “so as not to cause a mass panic attack”, he posted on Instagram.
He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attackers were still running, we hid in a nearby store while a police helicopter surrounded us,” Topic wrote.
Authorities canceled the rest of the weekend festival.
Stabbings and fatal shootings are relatively uncommon in Germany. The government said earlier this month it wants to introduce rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the maximum length allowed.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in Mannheim while attacking a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing attack on a train in 2021 left several injured.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of the Interior, Herbert Reul, visited the site on Saturday. He told reporters that the attack was a targeted attack on human life but refused to speculate on the motive.
