Terror motives 'cannot be ruled' out after fatal stabbings in Germany as 15-year-old detained

A person has been detained in connection with a knife attack in Germany which left three people dead and five seriously injured.

It comes following a “large-scale” overnight manhunt around the city of Solingen, involving several police forces.

Police were alerted by witnesses shortly after 9.30pm local time on Friday, to reports of several people being wounded in a central square, the Fronhof, during a festival.

On Saturday afternoon, officers announced they had detained a person and said they were investigating whether there is a connection with the attack.

“The investigation and manhunt for possible further perpetrators and reasons for the crime are in full swing,” they said.

Earlier in the day, police issued a warning urging people to stay vigilant, even as well-wishers started to leave flowers at the scene.

DJ and music producer Topic, who was performing at the festival, said he was on stage and asked to continue performing “to avoid mass panic” as the incident unfolded.

Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is near the bigger city of Dusseldorf and Germany‘s border with the Netherlands.

Police have said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker. Information about the identities of the victims has not yet been released.

The region’s top security official, Herbert Reul, who visited the scene in the early hours of Saturday, told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the motive.

The Festival of Diversity, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to continue over the weekend, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics. It has now been cancelled.

There is a calm sadness hanging over the west German city of Solingen. A few metres away from the site where three festival-goers were fatally stabbed, locals lay candles in their honour.

The small memorial laid out on a rainbow flag grows gradually through the day. I watch as a woman wipes a tear from her cheek, deeply moved by the devastation which has been inflicted about her home.

“Last night our hearts were torn apart,” says Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. “We in Solingen are full of horror and grief. What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep.”

Police in small groups can be seen in the streets; some guard the cordon, others speak to members of the public as they try to gather information about the attacker who caused all the pain.

Festival organiser Philip Müller was at the second stage when he got a call saying there was a man in the crowd stabbing people. When he arrived at the central square a few moments later, the only people left were the dead, the injured and emergency service personnel trying to help them.

“When I arrived at the front there were no people anymore,” he says. “They were gone: shocked. There was a little kind of panic… some got down under the tables.”
He adds: “No one can break this city. We have 160,000 people… let us keep together in freedom and in peace.”

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