Syrian confesses to triple murder in knife attack in Germany

Police said the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian.

Solingen, Germany:

As the German police announced on Sunday, a Syrian man has turned himself in and confessed to killing three people and injuring eight others in a shooting spree at a street festival.

The random attack on thousands of people on Friday evening in the Westphalian city of Solingen shocked Germany.

Two men, aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman were killed, authorities said. Four of the injured were in serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.

A police statement said the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who “surrendered himself to the authorities … and took responsibility for the attack.”

A police spokesman told AFP that officers arrested a suspect during a raid on an asylum seekers' home not far from the crime scene on Saturday.

According to Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister, the police have evidence linking the man to the knife attacks. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into allegations of “membership in a terrorist organization,” a spokesman said.

According to the newspapers Bild and Spiegel, the suspect came to Germany in December 2022 and enjoyed protected immigration status, which is often granted to people fleeing war-torn Syria.

The newspapers reported that he was not known to the security authorities as an extremist.

Teenager arrested

Police have also arrested a 15-year-old who is suspected of failing to report a crime. Witnesses saw the teenager discussing the attack, said Markus Caspers, a public prosecutor in Düsseldorf, west of Solingen.

The attack occurred as thousands of people gathered for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity,” part of a series of events celebrating Solingen's 650th anniversary. The entire festival has now been canceled.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7 with Hamas attacks on Israel, Germany has been on high alert against extremist attacks.

German street festivals and markets have also already been affected.

Twelve people were killed in a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016. In May, a police officer was killed and five people were injured in a knife attack at a right-wing extremist rally in Mannheim. An Islamist background was suspected as the motive.

The propaganda arm Amaq of the jihadist terrorist militia “Islamic State” stated that “the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians” in Solingen was “a soldier of the Islamic State”.

IS said the attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere else,” apparently a reference to the Gaza conflict.

The claim could not be immediately verified, but German authorities said a terrorist motive could not be ruled out.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned this month that Germany was “in the firing line” of Islamist groups.

National and local politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the country was “deeply shocked” by the deaths in Solingen, a city of 160,000 people.

Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt that he had been near the attack, close to the main stage, and “recognized from the singer's facial expression that something was wrong.”

“And then a person fell one meter away from me,” says Breitzke, who initially thought it was an alcoholic.

When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the floor in pools of blood.

During a visit to the site of the tragedy, Faeser called on the country to “stay united” and condemned “those who want to stir up hatred.”

“We should not allow ourselves to be divided,” she said.

Scholz's centre-left coalition must contest state elections in the east of the country next week, where the far-right AfD is leading in the polls.

Germany took in over one million asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, at the height of the European refugee crisis.

This influx led to a deep division in Germany and increased the popularity of the AfD.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)