A massive manhunt is taking place in Germany after a horrific stabbing at a festival in the city of Solingen on Friday night has left three people dead and eight injured
German festival organisers tell crowd ‘keep calm’ as knifeman on the loose
A major manhunt is under way in Germany after three people were killed and at least eight people injured after a knife attack at a festival that cops have confirmed is now being treated as terrorism.
Police are looking for the attacker after the incident in the city of Solingen, in the west of the country, with five of the people injured in a serious condition said authorities.
“The police are currently conducting a large-scale search for the perpetrator,” police said in a statement. They have assembled a large number of forces around Solingen city centre, including special units. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned,” the police also confirmed.
Footage shows the moment when one of the organisers of the festival, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage during the panic and asked people to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.” He said that emergency services were working to save the lives of those people who had been injured.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9:30 pm Friday to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said that the perpetrator was on the run, and that they so far had only very thin information on the assailant.
They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker and gave no information about the identities of the victims. The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
“None of us knows why,” said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, when asked for the motive for the attack. “I can’t say anything about the motive now”. He added that it wasn’t clear still who the attacker was.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf. “We are deeply shocked by the brutal attack on the city festival in Solingen,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement Saturday morning. “Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and establish the background to the attack.”
There has been concern about increased knife violence in Germany, and Faeser recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimetres (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimetres (4.7 inches) that is currently allowed.
Police are said to have declared a major incident last night with a police helicopter spotted circling above a cordoned-off area in the city. Authorities told people to leave the downtown area of Solingen, with Solinger Tagblatt reporting that one of the festival organisers said on stage that emergency workers were fighting for the lives of people attacked.
An area near the church square has been cordoned off by police with a situation centre set up at the Cafe Kersting. It’s believed the attack happened on a central square in the city, the Fronhof. As authorities continue to deal with the inident, heavily armed special force units with around 40 special vehicles remain in Solingen. Residents are currently being told to stay at home and steer clear of the city center. Police sources say no arrests have been made yet, Berliner Morgenpost reports.