CNN
—
A massive manhunt is underway after an attacker stabbed three people to death at a festival in the western German city of Solingen on Friday evening, but police say the suspect has yet to be identified.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested Saturday in connection with the attack, police said, but he was not identified as the attacker, understood to be a lone male. A second person was arrested following a police operation at a refugee home in Solingen, Reuters reported later on Saturday. However, the police did not reveal any further details about the person or their connection to the incident.
Two men aged 67 and 56 and a woman aged 56 were killed in the attack. Eight others were injured, including four with life-threatening injuries.
A motive for the attack, which sent shockwaves across the country, is yet to be ascertained and terrorism has not been ruled out. Although the Islamic State claimed responsibility, there was no evidence to support its claim.
A police spokesman, Thorsten Fleiß, said the attacker specifically targeted the victims’ necks. “After evaluating the initial images, we believe it was a highly targeted attack on the neck,” he said during a press conference.
An unknown assailant armed with a knife attacked several people on Friday evening in the central square of Solingen, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Düsseldorf.
As the suspect escaped on Saturday, the police said that the Special Task Force was involved in an intensive manhunt. Officials insisted at a press conference on Saturday that “extensive search operations” were underway across the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Local residents in Solingen have been warned to be vigilant and alert.
Not much is known about who is responsible. Police do not yet have a clear image of the suspect and are looking for more information to aid in their search.
Crowds gathered in Solingen Square on Friday to celebrate the “Festival of Diversity,” a three-day event marking the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding. Police said the attack took place near the stage where the concert was going on.
Eyewitness Lars Breitzke said the attack happened just meters away from him. Speaking to local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt, Preitzke said he realized something was wrong with the singer’s face on stage. Then, he said, “A person fell down one meter away from me.”
German DJ Topic was performing nearby and wrote on his Instagram that he had been asked to continue the show “to avoid causing a big panic”. The caption added that he and others hid in a nearby store as police helicopters hovered overhead.
German President Olaf Scholz condemned the attack.
“The attack in Solingen was a terrible event that saddens me deeply,” he wrote in X. “One killer brutally kills many.”
“The authorities are doing everything they can to catch the culprit and find out the background to the attack,” said Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Fasser.
The town’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach, said: “This evening, all of us in Solingen are experiencing shock, horror and great sadness.”
“We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together, and now we have to pay our respects to the dead and injured,” he wrote on Solingen’s Facebook page.
According to the festival’s website, the three-day “Festival of Diversity” kicked off Friday, including music, food, performances and family-friendly entertainment.
The Bergisch Symphony Orchestra, a shared orchestra for the cities of Solingen and Remscheid, was scheduled to play on the main stage on Friday.
Friday’s attack comes as knife crime is on the rise in Germany, recently prompting Interior Minister Pfizer to propose tougher laws to tackle the problem.
Police data show that 8,951 stabbing incidents caused serious bodily harm in Germany in 2023 – 791 cases more than the previous year.
This story has been updated with additional information. Reporting by CNN’s Melissa Gray contributed
