Police say knife used in attack and ‘large contingent’ searching for perpetrator
German police have issued a statement confirming a knife was used in the attacks in Solingen.
The statement from police in Wuppertal, posted on X (formerly Twitter), says:
Yesterday at around 10pm there was an attack at a street festival in #Solingen . An as yet unknown perpetrator attacked several people with a knife.
According to current knowledge, three people were killed and four others seriously injured in the attack.
The #Polizei is deployed with a large contingent and is searching for the fugitive perpetrator.
Key events
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Solingen:
Police spokesman Markus Seitz denied reports on Saturday morning that the perpetrator had deliberately stabbed his victims in the neck: “The police currently have no reliable evidence that he aimed the knife at his victims’ necks,” German tabloid Bild reported.
German musician Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the attack occurred, Reuters reports.
He was told about what happened but was asked to continue “to avoid causing a mass panic attack”, he said in a post on Instagram. He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” he wrote.
What we know so far
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Three people have been killed and eight injured in a knife attack at a diversity festival in the western German city of Solingen, police said.
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Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30pm last night to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof.
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Police are still searching for the attacker, who fled the scene. They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker. The motive for the attack is still not clear.
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The attack happened at a square in the city centre hosting the Festival of Diversity to mark the city’s 650th anniversary, which began on Friday and was supposed to run through to Sunday. Organisers were expecting thousands to attend.
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Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.
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This morning Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser gave an update on X, saying police were still searching for the attacker and trying establish a motive.
Security services ‘doing all they can’ to catch assailant
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said authorities are doing all they can to catch the perpetrator of last night’s attack.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and investigate the background of the attack,” she said in a post on X.
Der brutale Anschlag auf das Stadtfest in Solingen erschüttert uns zutiefst. Wir trauern um die Menschen, die auf furchtbare Weise aus dem Leben gerissen wurden. Meine Gedanken sind bei den Familien der Getöteten und bei den Schwerverletzten. (1/2)
— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) August 24, 2024
Unsere Sicherheitsbehörden tun alles, um den Täter zu fassen und die Hintergründe des Anschlags zu ermitteln. Die Polizei NRW hat dabei jede Unterstützung des Bundes. Ich bin dazu mit NRW-Innenminister Herbert Reul und unseren Sicherheitsbehörden im laufenden Kontakt. (2/2)
— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) August 24, 2024
We’ll pause this live blog in a moment – it’s almost 3.25am in Solingen. You can read our full report here on the west German knife attacks and the police search for the perpetrator. Thanks for being with us.
The premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, the west German state that takes in Solingen, said the attacks had “struck our country to the heart”.
Hendrik Wüst posted on X:
North Rhine-Westphalia is united in shock and grief. In these dark hours, the people of our state and beyond are in Solingen with their hearts and thoughts.
An act of brutal and senseless violence has struck our country to the heart.
The whole of North Rhine-Westphalia stands by the people of Solingen, especially the victims and their families.
A big thank you goes to the many rescue workers and our police who are fighting for people’s lives at this very moment.
Solinger Tageblatt deputy editor Björn Boch has told the BBC the celebrations at the festival had been “supposed to last for three days, and the city expected 25,000 people every night”.
“The city was just packed with people,” he said, estimating that “a few thousands people” were at Friday’s free event.
Pictures have arrived of German special forces police at work in Solingen after Friday night’s stabbings. Police have said three people were killed and four seriously injured and a “large contingent” of police were searching for the perpetrator.
A witness who spoke to the local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt said he was a few metres from the attack, not far from the stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.
“And then, a metre away from me, a person fell,” said the man, Lars Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who was drunk.
But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground and several pools of blood, he added.
Agence France-Presse also cited the newspaper as reporting that one of the co-organisers of the diversity festival came on stage after the attacks to cancel the event and that the crowd was asked to leave the city centre.
Following the announcement, thousands of attendees cleared the area, the paper reported, with a journalist at the scene describing the atmosphere as “ghostly”.
“People left the scene in shock, but calmly,” Philipp Mueller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper.
Germany has seen a series of knife attacks over the past 12 months, with the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, promising to crack down on knife crime. A police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in the south-western city of Mannheim in late May.
Here’s our just-updated full report on the knife attacks in the west German city of Solingen and the police search for the suspect: