Police hunting for an unknown assailant hours after he killed three people and wounded eight in a stabbing attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen yesterday said they had detained an individual.
Police said in the afternoon they were investigating whether there was a possible link to the attack.
“The investigation and manhunt for possible further perpetrators and reasons for the crime are in full swing,” the police said.
Photo: AFP
Police closed off the city center after the attack on Friday night at the city’s “Festival of Diversity.”
Five of the wounded were in “serious” condition, a police statement said.
Special forces were helping security personnel in the city center, while a helicopter flew overhead.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator” of the “horrific act,” German Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser said, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the attacker “must be caught quickly and punished.”
Thousands of people had gathered in front of a stage on the first night of the festival, part of a series of events to mark Solingen’s 650th anniversary, when the killing started.
“An unidentified man attacked several people with a knife around 9:40pm,” said a statement released by police in the nearby city of Duesseldorf.
“Police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large contingent,” it added, encouraging witnesses to send them photographs, videos and any other information about the attack.
“Out of nowhere, a man armed with a knife stabbed people at random and killed them,” German Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia Herbert Reul said in comments at the scene.
“Why? Nobody knows. We cannot say anything yet about the motive,” he added.
Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt that he was a few meters from the attack, not far from the festival stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong.”
“And then, a meter away from me, a person fell,” said Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had too much to drink.
When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.
Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said in a statement that the whole city was in “shock, horror and great grief.”
“We all wanted to celebrate our town’s anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured,” he said.
“It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost. I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives,” he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS