Three dead after stabbing attack at ‘Diversity Festival’ in Germany
The suspect who attacked people in the city of Solingen remains at large
Three people were fatally stabbed and several more were wounded during the Festival of Diversity in the German city of Solingen on Friday evening, police said. The sole suspect remains at large.
According to eyewitnesses, the perpetrator started attacking people at random at around 9:45 pm local time at Solingen’s Fronhof square, where many arrived to celebrate the city’s 650th anniversary.
The newspaper Bild said that police have declared a manhunt for the suspect who had fled the scene.
According to Bild, the witnesses described the perpetrator as “an Arab-looking man.”
The police have cordoned off the crime scene, with heavily armed officers and multiple ambulances present in the area.
“We are all in shock,” Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach said. “We had wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together, and how we have to mourn the dead and the injured.”
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 23, 2024
At least 3 stabbed to death at “diversity festival” in Solingen, Germany ????????
People are still receiving CPR treatment on the scene, but several bodies have also been covered with sheets.@BILD reports that eyewitnesses say an “Arab-looking man” started stabbing people pic.twitter.com/2443bpZZjR
A city with a population nearly 160,000, Solingen is located in Germany’s western North Rhine-Westphalia state, not far from the larger cities of Dusseldorf and Cologne.
Germany has seen several stabbing attacks in recent years. In 2021, a Somali national armed with a kitchen knife killed three people inside a store in Wurzburg. In June 2024, an Afghan asylum-seeker attacked people at a small rally organized by an anti-Islamist group in Mannheim. He injured six people, including a police officer who later succumbed to his wounds.