A Syrian man has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight in a knife rampage at a street festival, German police said yesterday.
The attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.
A 56-year-old woman and two men aged 56 and 67 were killed, officials said.
Photo: AP
Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition.
All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, police said.
The suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had “given himself up to authorities ... and declared himself responsible for the attack,” police said in a statement.
German prosecutors said they had launched a “terrorist” investigation.
The suspect arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing war-torn Syria, the Bild and Spiegel reported.
The Islamic State group’s Amaq propaganda arm has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians” in Solingen “was a soldier of the Islamic State.”
It said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere,” in an apparent reference to the Gaza conflict.
The claim could not be immediately verified.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the suspect was not known to the security services as an extremist considered dangerous.
Habeck — who yesterday called for tougher knife laws — said “Islamic terrorism” was one of “the biggest security dangers” Germany faces.
The attack took place as thousands of people gathered for the first night of the “Festival of Diversity,” part of a series of events to mark Solingen’s 650th anniversary. The whole festival has been canceled.
German officers yesterday said that a suspect arrested a day before in a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of the attack, was considered a “witness.”
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