Germany arrests suspect in Solingen attack and Islamic State claims responsibility

German Police arrested an individual this Saturday night suspect in Friday’s multiple stabbing. The attack, which took place during a concert in Solingen, It resulted in three deaths and eight injuries of varying degrees.. Hours earlier, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, pointing out oppression of Palestine as the main cause.

“The person we have been searching for all day has recently been taken into police custody in our facilities,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister. Herbert Reulto public television ARD. “We just arrested the real suspect,” He added, specifying that investigators had “evidence.”

The suspect, who was arrested shortly before midnight, is a citizen of Syrian origin, Issa al H., 26 years old, who surrendered to a patrol, as local media reported and the minister confirmed. His clothes were dirty and stained with blood, according to Security sources.

Born in the Syrian city of Deir al-Sor, he arrived in Germany at the end of December 2022 and requested asylum in Bielefeld. A year later he was granted the subsidiary protection that refugees from this country at war usually receive. The first data indicate that He did not appear in any police file of radical extremists.

At least one man – although some witnesses refer to two – stabbed several people on Friday night, taking advantage of the crowd attending a Diversity Festival concert. The attacker managed to flee in panic, killing a 67-year-old man, another 56-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman. It also left several injured, some of whom are in critical condition.

According to German media, a police tracking dog has guided investigators directly from the place where the knife was found to the refugee center located on Wupper/Goerdeler street in Solingen (North Rhine-Westphalia).

The shelter for asylum seekers is located just 300 meters from Fronhof, the site of the attackand 150 meters from the place where investigators found, in the afternoon, the alleged murder weapon.

The person arrested tonight is the second arrested in connection with the attack, after a 15-year-old boy was arrested in the afternoon and is not charged with homicide but with not reporting the crime, because he had knowledge about the attack.

Hendrik Wuest, the prime minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, issued a statement saying that “the attack hit our country at the heart. This attack was intended to sow terror. Terror among people who were peacefully celebrating together.”

Great operation

The security forces deployed a large operation with numerous armed agents, special vehicles and the support of helicopters to search for the person responsible for whom no description was provided although Some witnesses stated that he was a man of “Arab appearance.”

It was also spread in Bild who are looking for an aggressor among 1.70 and 1.75 meters tall, athletic build, short and dense full beard and that he was dressed in black, with a cap.

“That’s one of our problems, we don’t have enough data on him“Police spokesman Alexander Kresta told the private channel NTV. The Police assume that this is a single man and has no information about possible accomplices.

murder weapon

the police has already found the alleged murder weapona knife with a blade of approximately 20 centimeters long. This discovery occurred about 200 meters from the place of the incident in Fronhof, in the center of Solingen, where, according to the authorities, the aggressor selectively attacked the necks of his defenseless victims.

Around 1:00 p.m., the police set up a tent at that location so that the forensic experts could carry out their work, German media report.

Attack at the concert

The events occurred when a concert was taking place which was part of the Diversity Festival, commemorating its 650th anniversary, and which was interrupted to ask people to leave the city center.

“I don’t want to panic, stay calm. But we have a knife attack with several injured, we have to interrupt the festival. Please go home slowly“said one of the people in charge of the festival, Phillip Müller.

The festival had to be suspended and people were asked to avoid the city center and stay home.

“In Solingen we are all shocked. We wanted to celebrate the anniversary of our city and now we have to mourn the dead and mourn the injured. I have tears in my eyes and my heart is broken. I think of those who have died and I pray for those who still They are fighting for their lives,” said the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbachon Facebook.

The Police have asked the population to provide testimonies or videos and photographs of the moment of the attack through an internet portal created especially for this purpose, in an attempt to reinforce the search criteria.

Local residents have also been asked to avoid the old town and stay in their homes if possible.

Scholz, “shocked”

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholzit was declared this Saturday “shocked” for the “brutal” knife attack that killed three people in Solingen. “The attack in Solingen is a terrible event, which has left me shocked. The perpetrator of the attack has brutally killed several people,” he wrote on the social network X.

“I wish the injured a speedy recovery. The perpetrator must be captured quickly and punished to the full extent of the law,” he added.

NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul has traveled to Solingen. “One wishes that what is seen here were not true. I think of the victims’ loved ones and the injured. We can only hope that the seriously injured are saved.“, said.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared that security forces are doing everything possible to “capture the perpetrator and clarify the background of the attack,” according to a brief statement released to the media.

For the 650th anniversary of Solingen they were expected during the weekend at least 80,000 visitors. The festival was to last until Sunday with various concerts and shows.

The attack occurred a few days after the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeserwill announce plans to restrict the carrying of long knives on public roads.

According to police statistics, last year there were 9,000 cases of injuries with a knife in Germany.

In June, a 29-year-old police officer died after being stabbed in Mannheim during an attack on a far-right demonstration. In 2021, a multiple stabbing on a trainHe left several people injured.