Friday night's stabbing attack in Solingen, Germany, was claimed by Islamic State. The suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian, surrendered to the authorities and confessed everything.
The main suspect in the deadly Solingen knife attack in Germany, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, went to authorities and confessed, local police said in a statement this morning. The attack during a local festival in Solingen, western Germany, left three people dead and eight injured on Friday night. The German Federal Anti-Terrorism Office took over the investigation after the confession.
The suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian man, “surrendered to investigative authorities and claimed responsibility for the attack,” according to police. “The one we've been looking for all day was recently in police custody at our headquarters,” North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, told public broadcaster ARD earlier. Without elaborating on the circumstances, he said investigators had “evidence”.
Police also indicated this Sunday that the person arrested on Saturday night in a refugee accommodation center in Solingen, located not far from the scene of the attack, was considered “a witness”. A 15-year-old teenager was also arrested earlier on suspicion of “failing to report” a planned criminal act. Investigators are checking whether he could have been related to the perpetrator of the attack.
It arrived at the end of 2022 in Germany
ISIS claimed responsibility for the act which shocked Germany. The “authority of the attack on a Christian gathering in the town of Solingen” is “a soldier” of IS, the jihadist group said late Saturday in a press release sent through its Amaq propaganda organ. The man acted “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere,” the text added.
According to German newspapers Bild And Der Spiegelthe Syrian arrived at the end of December 2022 in Germany where he benefits from subsidiary protection status, often granted to people fleeing this country in civil war. Until now, he was not known to security services as an Islamist extremist, according to the two media outlets, which police have not confirmed.
Victims aged between 56 and 67 years
Knifing among thousands of spectators on Friday night, two men aged 56 and 67, as well as a 56-year-old woman were killed and eight people injured, four of them seriously. The attacker attacked his victims “by the throat”, according to police.
“Let us not be divided”
At the end of the day, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser went to Solingen and called on the country to “remain united” in the face of this “horrific attack”. “Let us not be divided,” she said, as she denounced “those who want to sow hatred.”
#Solingen | “Diese Gesellschaft muss jetzt gerade in solch schweren Stunden zusammenstehen”, so der Appell der Bundesinnenministerin @NancyFaeser we will Tatort in Solingen. Menschen durchten sich von den Kommentaren des Hasses, der Spaltung, nicht beeindrucken lassen. pic.twitter.com/Q8MtqPFoQV
— phoenix (@phoenix_de) August 24, 2024
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in particular blamed alleged deficiencies in security policy at the regional and federal level. Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition faces key regional elections in the east of the country in a week's time, where the AfD is well ahead of the ruling parties in the polls. “The culprit must be swiftly arrested and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” urged the chancellor who declared himself “angry” on the X network.
There was a large crowd Friday evening in the center of Solingen, a town of about 160,000, for the launch of several days of festivities when the killer struck. The event was to celebrate the 650th anniversary of this city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.