Police and ambulances close to the scene the place folks had been killed and injured in an assault at a competition in Solingen, western Germany, the German dpa information company reported, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024.
Gianni Gattus/AP
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Gianni Gattus/AP
SOLINGEN, Germany — An attacker with a knife killed three folks and severely wounded no less than 5 late Friday at a competition within the western German metropolis of Solingen, authorities stated.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30 p.m. to an unknown perpetrator having wounded a number of folks indiscriminately with a knife on a central sq., the Fronhof. Police stated the attacker was on the run, and that they to this point had solely little or no info on the person.
They stated they consider the stabbings had been carried out by a lone attacker.
One of many competition organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and requested festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.”
He stated many individuals had been wounded by “a knifeman.”
At the least one helicopter was seen within the air, whereas many police and emergency autos with flashing blue lights had been on the highway and a number of other streets had been closed off.
Police put the variety of severely injured at 5. The area’s high safety official, Herbert Reul, gave a determine of six as he visited the scene within the early hours of Saturday.
A celebration environment rapidly turned to shock
“None of us knows why” the assault passed off, stated Reul, who’s the inside minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.
“I can’t say anything about the motive now” and it is not clear who the assailant was, he additionally stated and added that the attacker had left the scene “relatively quickly.”
Mayor Tim Kurzbach stated in a Fb submit that “this evening, 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.”
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
The native newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter masking the competition, as saying that “the atmosphere is spooky.” She stated a celebration environment had turned to shock inside minutes and she or he noticed festivalgoers weeping.
The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the town’s 650th anniversary, started on Friday and was speculated to run via Sunday, with a number of levels in central streets providing sights comparable to stay music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The town canceled the remainder of the competition after the assault.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is situated close to the larger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
There was concern about a rise in knife violence in Germany just lately.
In Could, a knife assault by an Afghan immigrant on members of a bunch that describes itself as opposing “political Islam” left a police officer lifeless.
Germany’s high safety official, Inside Minister Nancy Faeser, this month proposed toughening weapons legal guidelines to permit solely knives with a blade measuring as much as 6 centimeters (almost 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, relatively than the size of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) which is allowed now.
