[kellyhound]

The police in Solingen, Germany are on a major manhunt. A knife attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations left several people dead and seriously injured. The perpetrator is on the run. He had deliberately stabbed his victims in the neck.

Three people were killed and eight others injured, five of them seriously, in a knife attack at the 650th anniversary celebrations of the city of Solingen.

Nothing new was known about the condition of the injured until this morning. According to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), the dead are a woman and two men.

The crime scene is the Fronhof - a market square in the city center of Solingen. There is a stage for live music there.

According to police, the perpetrator stabbed the victim directly in front of the stage at 9:37 p.m. The murder weapon had been found as it was laying underneath of one of the victims. It is currently being examined.

Special units were being deployed in the Solingen area to search for a lone perpetrator. They were trying to get as much information about the man as possible by interviewing witnesses and victims. Police sources also said that the case was no longer being classified as a rampage but as an attack - because of the targeted nature of the attack.

The perpetrator was still on the run early Saturday morning. So far, no one has been arrested "with concrete suspicion," said a police spokesman in Düsseldorf on Saturday. "We currently have no clues as to his whereabouts."

The "Bild" newspaper reported on an arrest by the SEK. However, initial investigations indicate that this is not the perpetrator. The man was arrested early on Saturday morning and is in custody, police sources said.

Meanwhile, the police are continuing to warn the city's residents to be cautious. "People in the city center should be careful," said a spokesman.

"Anyone who sees a suspicious person should immediately call 110 and not speak to them." However, everything will be done to clarify the situation for the people on site in Solingen as quickly as possible, the spokesman told.

According to a spokesman for the NRW Interior Ministry, the attacker stabbed his victims very precisely in the neck. According to the police, the perpetrator appears to have attacked passers-by indiscriminately, choosing his victims at random.

He then managed to escape in the tumult and the initial panic that spread after the crime. The suspect is being searched for "with a large number of people".

Helicopters are in the air, numerous emergency vehicles are on the road with their blue lights flashing.

There is very little reliable information. "I think that is our huge problem. We don't have much information about the perpetrator yet," said the police spokesman.

Witnesses who were in the immediate vicinity of the incident are in shock. "We are currently providing them with professional support and we are of course interviewing them to get more precise information."

The police spokesman did not confirm that the perpetrator was of Arabic appearance, as media reports citing eyewitnesses: "There is no reliable information on this."

Philipp Müller, one of the organizers of the celebration, told WELT: "I was called by a stage manager who told me: 'There are people lying on the floor here and they are being resuscitated,'" said Müller two hours after the attack.

He himself rushed to the Fronhof market square: "It is horrific." At the time of the attack, around 15,000 people were in the city center, said Müller.

Müller explained that the emergency services in front of the stage were fighting for the lives of nine people.

Thousands of visitors followed the request to leave the square quietly and not to panic. "People left the square shocked but peacefully," organizer Müller reported to the "Solinger Tageblatt".

A reporter from the newspaper described: "The atmosphere is spooky." Within a few minutes, the exuberant party mood had turned to shock, and she was met by tearful visitors.

During the attack, the musician Topic was playing on one of the stages. He said on Instagram that security staff came to him and asked him to keep playing to prevent a mass panic.

"That was incredibly hard," wrote the artist. He stopped 15 minutes later when the visitors were informed of the incident. He then hid in a shop while helicopters circled above him.

The city of Solingen has completely ended the celebrations for the city's 650th anniversary. The program items planned for this Saturday and Sunday have also been canceled, the city announced.

Town festivals were also scheduled to take place in neighboring towns this weekend. In Hilden, for example, diversity was to be celebrated as part of the "Festival of Cultures," explained Hilden's mayor Claus Pommer. The decision to cancel was made partly because of the security situation, but above all out of compassion for the people in the neighboring town. "The terrible act in Solingen does not allow us to come together and celebrate without a care in the world just a few hours later."

The same is true in Haan: "We are thinking together of the relatives of the dead and hope and pray for those who are still fighting for their lives," explained Mayor Bettina Warnecke.

The wine festival in Haan has been cancelled for Saturday and Sunday. "We cannot celebrate when our neighbouring town is mourning just a few kilometres away."

The perpetrator is also still at large and the security situation is unclear, she added.

[Sparetimedj]

Is this the change that Göring-Eckardt meant?

[spycosis]

I hope the German ThoughtPolizei find this poor, mentally unwell victim of radicalization quickly so that they can get back to the important business of arresting people for saying hurty words on facebook.

[kellyhound]

In connection with the knife attack in Solingen, the police have arrested a person in a refugee shelter in the city. The connections between the crimes are now being investigated, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency. He could not yet say anything about the identity of the suspect.

The police had previously stormed the refugee shelter in the former tax office in Solingen with strong forces. "We have received information and are currently taking police action based on this," said a police spokesman. A special task force is also in action. The area is cordoned off by a hundred officers.

The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the deadly knife attack in Solingen. The attacker was an IS member and carried out the attack, in which three people were killed and eight seriously injured, out of "revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere," according to a statement on the IS mouthpiece Amak. The attack was aimed at a "group of Christians."

The Düsseldorf police also said they received a letter from (IS) claiming responsibility for the knife attack in Solingen. Now they must check whether this letter is genuine, said a police spokesman.

[spycosis]

The murderer was arrested, still covered in blood a day after police traced him to the refugee centre, which opens up the possibility that several people protected him from being arrested, rather than informing the police.

[kellyhound]

Investigators have identified a suspect who is said to have turned himself in. The man, who is from Syria, is being questioned. Evidence is said to be available.

The police have arrested a suspect in connection with the knife attack in Solingen. This was announced by North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul.

"The person we have been looking for all day has recently been in our custody," said North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul on Saturday evening in the ARD "Tagesthemen".

The man is "highly" suspected of the crime and is now being questioned. The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) had previously claimed responsibility for the attack, but there has not yet been any confirmation from the security authorities that the motive was Islamist.

A spokeswoman for the Düsseldorf police said that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian. He turned himself in to the investigating authorities and stated that he was responsible for the attack, according to a joint press release from the public prosecutor's office and the Düsseldorf police.

Referring to a search of a refugee shelter in Solingen, Reul said that this was part of further information that had been used. "But that was not what we wanted. We have been following a hot lead all day, and I can tell you that we successfully closed this hot lead a few minutes ago. The person we have actually been looking for all day has recently been in our custody."

Previously arrested persons probably not suspected:

A few hours earlier, the police had already arrested a man in a refugee shelter in Solingen, which is not far from the site of the attack in the city center.

That morning, a 15-year-old who may have been connected to the possible perpetrator was also arrested. "But they were very likely, still cautiously, not the people we really suspect," said Reul, referring to the two arrests.

The "Spiegel" reported that the emergency services in the refugee accommodation had only taken away one man who was being questioned as a suspected witness.

The police also suspected that the main suspect was in the accommodation, it said.

The emergency services had stormed the accommodation. A special task force was also deployed.

With regard to the 15-year-old, investigators had previously stated that they do not believe he was the perpetrator. One possible charge against him is failure to report planned crimes.

"According to witness statements, an as yet unknown person spoke to the youth shortly before the attack about intentions that would be consistent with the crime," said senior public prosecutor Markus Caspers on Saturday afternoon.

According to "Spiegel", the 15-year-old is a Kyrgyz who lives in a refugee shelter. He is refusing to testify, it was said.

It is too early to judge whether the arrest was ultimately a success. "I myself am a little relieved at the moment," said Reul. "I can only tell you that it is now more than just a guess. We not only had a lead on this person, but we also found evidence."

He did not say whether it was the murder weapon. The police had previously only announced that they had confiscated several knives and that they were being examined to determine whether one could be linked to the crime.

According to "Spiegel" information, the man who has now been arrested came to Germany at the end of December 2022 and applied for asylum. He was not previously known to the security authorities as an Islamist extremist.

On Friday evening, a man apparently randomly stabbed bystanders at an anniversary celebration in the city of Solingen in the Bergisches Land. He then escaped in the tumult and initial panic. Two men, aged 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman died. Eight people were injured, four of them seriously.