Germany Police Hunt Suspect in Fatal Festival Stabbing

Police in Germany are searching for an unknown suspect behind a mass stabbing at a festival that killed three and injured eight, five of them seriously.

The knife attack took place as thousands of people gathered at the central square in the city of Solingen in the country’s west during celebrations to mark its 650th anniversary, billed as a festival of diversity.

No one has been arrested and police said they had deployed a “large contingent” including a helicopter to search for the male assailant who fled the scene. Police declined to discuss a possible motive or speculate about the identity of the suspect.

Police said they were still trying to track down the unknown assailant and said the number of seriously injured had risen from four to five. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned. The police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large team,” police said.

A witness told local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt that he was a few meters from the attack, not far from a live-music stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.

Amid speculation as to the motive for the attack and the identity of the suspect, federal interior minister Nancy Faeser said that security authorities were “doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and determine the background to the attack”.

The attack happened at an event marking the city’s 650th anniversary and billed as a festival of diversity. Around 10,000 people attended, many gathering around a stage with live music on the Fronhof market square in the city center.

Most of those wounded are believed to have been attacked directly in front of the stage, adding that the man appeared to target the throats of his victims.