German police arrest suspect accused of stabbing three people to death at music festival

() – Police in Germany arrested a suspect accused of stabbing three people to death at a music festival in the city of Solingen on Friday, in an attack that shocked the entire country.

The suspect was detained in a refugee center after a major search in which authorities established “extensive search measures” throughout the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and deployed special forces. Police previously arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the incident, but said he was not the alleged attacker.

“We recently arrested the real suspect. He now he is being interrogated and everything else is becoming clear and then we can also say: Are we right? Do we have enough evidence? I can only tell you that it is now more than a guess,” North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul told German public broadcaster ARD this Sunday.

“Not only did we have a lead on this person, we also found evidence,” he added.

Before the arrest of the suspect, residents of the city of Solingen were warned to be careful and alert while the perpetrator remained at large. For hours after the attack, authorities were unable to present a clear picture of what the suspect might look like.

The dead were two men, ages 67 and 56, and a woman, 56. Eight other people were injured, four of them with life-threatening injuries.

The motive for the attack has not yet been determined, but it has not been ruled out that it was a terrorist act.

A police spokesman, Thorsten Fleiß, said the attacker specifically targeted his victims’ necks. “After evaluating the initial images, we assumed it was a very targeted attack on the neck,” he said during a news conference.

Several people were stabbed, apparently at random, in the attack in a central square in the city of Solingen on Friday night, about 25 kilometers east of Dusseldorf, police said.

Crowds gathered on Solingen Square on Friday to celebrate the “Diversity Festival,” a three-day event marking the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding. Police said the attack occurred near the stage where a musical show was being performed.

Witness Lars Breitzke said the attack occurred a few meters away from him. Speaking to local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt, Breitzke said he could tell something was wrong from the expression on the singer’s face on stage. Then, he said, “a person a few meters away from me fell.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attack as a “disturbing” and “terrible” event.

Friday’s attack came amid rising rates of knife crime in Germany, prompting the Interior Ministry recently to propose stricter laws to tackle the problem.

Police data shows there were 8,951 incidents of knife crime causing serious bodily harm in Germany in 2023, 791 more cases than the previous year.

This is a developing story and will be updated.