By Petra Wischgoll, Tom Sims and Rene Wagner
SOLINGEN, Germany (Reuters) -Police hunted on Saturday for an unknown assailant hours after he killed three folks and wounded others in a stabbing assault at a pageant within the western German metropolis of Solingen.
Eight had been injured, 5 of them critically, the police mentioned in an announcement early on Saturday.
“Each victims and witnesses are presently being questioned. The police are presently looking for the perpetrator with a big workforce,” police mentioned.
The incident occurred round 9:40 p.m. (1940 GMT) on Friday, when the person attacked a number of folks with a knife, the police mentioned, including that the motive remained unclear.
“The perpetrator should be rapidly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the legislation,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz mentioned in a publish on X.
Germany’s inside minister, Nancy Faeser, mentioned safety authorities had been doing every little thing they may to catch the particular person and examine the background to the assault, which occurred on the Fronhof, a market sq. in Solingen the place dwell bands had been taking part in. It was throughout a pageant marking the 650th anniversary of the town within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands.
Police had cordoned off the sq. on Saturday, and passers-by positioned candles and flowers exterior the barricades.
“We’re stuffed with shock and grief,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach informed journalists on Saturday morning.
The German musician who goes by the title Subject mentioned he was taking part in on a close-by stage when the incident occurred. He was informed about what occurred however was requested to proceed “to keep away from inflicting a mass panic assault”, he posted on Instagram.
He was finally informed to cease, and “for the reason that attacker was nonetheless on the run, we hid in a close-by retailer whereas police helicopters circled above us,” Subject wrote.
Authorities cancelled the rest of the weekend pageant.
The perpetrator aimed particularly for folks’s throats, one police spokesperson mentioned. A second spokesperson later would not verify or deny that element, and pointed to a information convention scheduled for the afternoon.
Deadly stabbings and shootings are comparatively unusual in Germany. The federal government mentioned earlier this month it wished to toughen guidelines on knives that may be carried in public by decreasing the utmost size allowed.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in Mannheim throughout an assault on a right-wing demonstration. A stabbing assault on a prepare in 2021 injured a number of.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s inside minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene early on Saturday. He informed reporters it was a focused assault on human life however declined to take a position on the motive.
Solingen, well-known for its knife manufacturing business, is a metropolis of some 165,000 folks.
