Officials in Germany have said they cannot rule out “terrorist motives” following a stabbing at a festival which left three people dead – and revealed a 15-year-old has been detained in connection with the incident.
The teenager is suspected of failing “to report an imminent crime” but no more at the moment, police and prosecutors said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon. They are investigating the possibility he may have spoken to the attacker.
Prosecutor Markus Caspers said authorities are still looking into motives and searching for a male perpetrator, as a “large-scale” overnight manhunt involving several police forces and special units continues. There is no clear link between the people who were attacked, authorities said – one of the reasons why terrorism cannot be ruled out.
A 56-year-old woman and two men, aged 56 and 67, died following the attack. Eight people were injured, four seriously, while “many other people have suffered mental stress”.
Police were alerted by witnesses shortly after 9.30pm local time on Friday, to reports of several people being wounded in a central square, the Fronhof, during a community festival.
Searches are still also under way at various locations in the entire state of North Rhine Westphalia, officers said, with federal forces also involved. “The investigation and manhunt for possible further perpetrators and reasons for the crime are in full swing,” they said.
Police officer Thorsten Fleiss, who was the chief of operations when the stabbings happened on Friday, said it had been a “big challenge” to bring together available evidence and testimony from witnesses in order to come up with an overall picture.
Earlier in the day, police issued a warning urging people to stay vigilant, even as well-wishers started to leave flowers at the scene. They have also urged people not to speculate about the attack.
DJ and music producer Topic, who was performing at the festival, said he was on stage and asked to continue performing “to avoid mass panic” as the incident unfolded.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is near the bigger city of Dusseldorf and Germany‘s border with the Netherlands.
Information about the identities of the victims has not yet been released.
The region’s top security official, Herbert Reul, who visited the scene in the early hours of Saturday, told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the motive.
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The Festival of Diversity, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to continue over the weekend, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics. It has now been cancelled.
Authorities have established an online portal for witnesses to upload footage and any other information relevant to the attack.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that the perpetrator must be caught and punished quickly.
“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly,” he said. “An attacker has brutally killed several people.”
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