Police hunting for an unknown assailant hours after he killed three people and wounded eight in a stabbing attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen yesterday said they had detained an individual.
Police said in the afternoon they were investigating whether there was a possible link to the attack.
“The investigation and manhunt for possible further perpetrators and reasons for the crime are in full swing,” the police said.
Photo: AFP
Police closed off the city center after the attack on Friday night at the city’s “Festival of Diversity.”
Five of the wounded were in “serious” condition, a police statement said.
Special forces were helping security personnel in the city center, while a helicopter flew overhead.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator” of the “horrific act,” German Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser said, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the attacker “must be caught quickly and punished.”
Thousands of people had gathered in front of a stage on the first night of the festival, part of a series of events to mark Solingen’s 650th anniversary, when the killing started.
“An unidentified man attacked several people with a knife around 9:40pm,” said a statement released by police in the nearby city of Duesseldorf.
“Police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large contingent,” it added, encouraging witnesses to send them photographs, videos and any other information about the attack.
“Out of nowhere, a man armed with a knife stabbed people at random and killed them,” German Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia Herbert Reul said in comments at the scene.
“Why? Nobody knows. We cannot say anything yet about the motive,” he added.
Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt that he was a few meters from the attack, not far from the festival stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong.”
“And then, a meter away from me, a person fell,” said Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had too much to drink.
When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.
Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said in a statement that the whole city was in “shock, horror and great grief.”
“We all wanted to celebrate our town’s anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured,” he said.
“It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost. I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives,” he said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS