The 26-year-old Syrian national has turned himself in
German authorities have apprehended the suspected knifeman responsible for killing three people and injuring eight at the Festival of Diversity in Solingen on Friday. The festival was held to celebrate the city’s 650th anniversary.
The alleged attacker is a 26-year-old Syrian man who reportedly arrived in Germany in December 2022 and was granted asylum.
According to reports, the suspect, still covered in blood, turned himself in to the police shortly after 11pm, saying “I’m the one you’re looking for.” He was reportedly hiding in a nearby backyard.
Prior to his arrest, authorities had detained two individuals who were not believed to be the perpetrators. These individuals included a 15-year-old boy who allegedly knew about the planned attack but failed to report it, and a second man who was apprehended at a refugee center near the crime scene.
“The man we’ve really been looking for the whole day has just been taken into custody,” Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told ARD public TV on Saturday.
“I myself am a bit relieved at the moment,” the minister said after the third arrest, adding that the police have also found “pieces of evidence.”
Two men, aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman were stabbed to death by the knifeman during the Festival of Diversity, which was part of Solingen’s 650th anniversary celebration. According to eyewitness accounts in the media, “an Arab-looking man” stabbed festivalgoers at random, “targeting” their throats and necks.
”The victims were completely unknown with no known ties between them,” Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf, a larger city just west of Solingen, said at a press conference after the attack.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim has yet to be verified.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attack as a “horrific act,” saying the culprit “must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law.”
“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. … We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” Scholz said in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter).