A man stabbed three people to death and injured eight others during a festival in Solingen, Germany.
The local police have not been able to arrest the assailant yet and have widened the scope of the search for the assailant.
The attack happened around 9:40 p.m. on Friday night, after which police cordoned off the city center and questioned victims and witnesses. The condition of five of the injured is said to be ‘critical’.
Special forces have been deployed in the area and a helicopter was also flying.
According to police in the nearby city of Düsseldorf, an unknown assailant struck around 9:40 p.m. Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward with photos, videos, or any other information.
Eyewitness Lars Bretzke, who was near the stage at the festival, told the Sollinger Tageblatt newspaper that he was a few meters away from the scene of the attack and ‘knew from the look on the singer’s face that something was wrong.’
‘And then a meter away from me, a man fell who at first thought he was drunk,’ Bretzke said.
The fair was part of Solingen’s 650th birthday celebrations.
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Solingen Mayor Tim Oliver Kurzbach expressed ‘shock, horror and deep sadness’ and said the city was mourning rather than celebrating.
“We all wanted to celebrate the birthday of our city together, but now we have to mourn the dead and injured,” he said.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Chief Minister Hendrik Wost described the incident as ‘brutal and senseless violence’ and offered his condolences to the victims and their families.
75 thousand participants were expected in the three-day ‘Festival of Diversity’. After the attack, the organizers announced the cancellation of the events.
People gathered in the city on Friday, the first day of the festival. Germany has seen a spate of knife attacks over the past 12 months, prompting Interior Minister Nancy Fesser to vow to crack down on knife crime.
In May, a police officer was killed and five others injured in a knife attack during a far-right rally in the city of Mannheim.
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2024-08-24 23:52:53
