Knife attack in Germany: three dead and four injured at festival in Solingen, attacker still on the run

According to the local daily newspaper "Solinger Tageblatt", shortly after 10 p.m., a member of the organization came on stage to interrupt the demonstration that had begun in the evening with a light show accompanied by concerts on a square in the city center.

The organizer said that emergency services were trying to save the lives of several people. The thousands of visitors followed his request to leave the scene peacefully, the newspaper reported. “The atmosphere is ghostly”, described the journalist covering the event.

Pools of blood

“People left the square in shock, but calmly”, Philipp Müller, one of the organizers, testified in the newspaper.

A witness also claims to have been a few meters away from the attack, not far from the concert stage, "understanding from the singer's facial expression that something was wrong".

"And then, a meter away from me, a person fell", says this man, Lars Breitzke, who says he initially thought it was of a drunk person.

But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground and several pools of blood.

Festivities cancelled

The German authorities have remained on high alert in recent years in the face of a dual terrorist threat, jihadism and right-wing extremism.

The deadliest jihadist attack committed on German soil dates back to December 2016: a truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group left 12 dead at a Christmas market in the centre of Berlin.

At the end of May, a knife attack in Mannheim (west) targeting an anti-Islam rally and committed by a 25-year-old Afghan who arrived in Germany in 2014 is suspected of having had an Islamist motivation. It cost the life of a police officer and left five others injured.

Searching for the perpetrator of the attack

Another threat weighs on the country, embodied by the extreme right, after several deadly attacks in recent years targeting community or religious places.

The festivities in Solingen, which were to last until Sunday, have been cancelled due to the attack, the organisers indicated in the press. Dubbed "Diversity Festival", the event was to feature three days of music, theater, and dance. Up to 75,000 visitors were expected.

On Saturday, August 24, 2024, the police are still searching for the perpetrator of the knife attack. "Victims and witnesses are currently being questioned", police in the neighboring city of Düsseldorf said in a statement.