Three people killed, five seriously injured in knife attack at Germany festival

Saturday, August 24, 2024-Three people have been killed with five others seriously injured in a knife attack at a German festival.

At about 10 pm local time on Friday, August 23, a single, unidentified man attacked multiple people with a knife and the perpetrator remains at large, police said.

Police said the attack occurred at a festival to honour Solingen’s 650th anniversary, which is located in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany’s most populous and bordering the Netherlands.

The Bild newspaper reported that the assailant had fled the scene after attacking festival-goers at random.

Police said they believed the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker.

 The police also put the number of seriously injured at five, but the region's top security official, Herbert Reul, gave a figure of six as he visited the scene in the early hours of Saturday.

Mr Reul told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the motive.

"None of us knows why" the attack took place, said Mr Reul.

"I can't say anything about the motive now" and it isn't clear who the assailant was, he also said, adding that the attacker had left the scene "relatively quickly".

People had gathered for the Festival of Diversity which started on Friday to mark the 650th anniversary of the 160,000-strong city.

It was supposed to run through to Sunday, with several stages in the city offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

The festival has now been stopped and people have been told to leave the area, Robbins said.

The city's mayor, Tim Kurzbach, said in a Facebook post, "We in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city's anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament".

He added: "It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened."

The German government has been aiming to toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the length allowed.