Syrian accused of murders at German festival reportedly told police: “I am the one you are looking for.”

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A Syrian asylum seeker accused of stabbing three people and injuring eight others at a German music festival reportedly turned himself in to police, saying: “I am the one you are looking for.”

The suspect, named Issa al H., is said to have hidden in a garden for 24 hours after the attack on a Christian music festival in Solingen near Düsseldorf and then turned himself in. He reportedly appeared at a police station wearing blood-stained clothing.

Al H. first came to Germany in 2022 and applied for asylum in the nearby city of Bielefeld. When he learned that he was to be deported to Bulgaria in 2023, he went into hiding, the newspaper Welt reported.

The authorities had not previously suspected him of being involved in Islamist extremism.

The case was taken over by the Federal Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the Syrian citizen for alleged murder and his membership in the Islamic State (IS).

Islamic State claim investigated

The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack “on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany” on the messaging platform Telegram and described the killings as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and around the world”.

The police in Düsseldorf also received a letter claiming that it was from IS; a letter is currently being investigated, a police spokesman said.

There was no evidence of IS involvement in the attack.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst told journalists in Solingen: “We don't know much yet, but we do know one thing: This attack has hit our country right in the heart.”

Police arrested two more people, including a 36-year-old man, in an asylum seekers' home just 800 meters from the crime scene.

It remains unclear whether and what role the man arrested in the asylum home played in the attack.

In response to the attack, Christian Democratic opposition leader Friedrich Merz declared that asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan should no longer be accepted in Germany.

“It is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who carry them around with them. In the majority of cases, these are refugees, and the majority of the crimes are committed with Islamist motives,” he wrote, breaking decisively with his predecessor Angela Merkel.

He added: “Deportations to Syria and Afghanistan are possible, but we will not accept any more refugees from these countries.”

Germany debates asylum law and knife ban

At the end of May, a police officer was killed and five others injured by an Afghan citizen in an attack on an anti-Islamic demonstration in Mannheim.

Since then, Germany has been debating restrictions on immigration and asylum law as well as a knife ban. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser promised that a corresponding law would be passed “soon”.

The German government had already started talks with the Taliban in order to be able to deport rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan.

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