A manhunt is underway after an assailant killed three and injured at least eight in a stabbing incident at a festival in Germany on Friday evening. Five of the injured victims are in critical condition.
The event was celebrating 650 years of the German city of Solingen and its cultural diversity. The attack took place at Fronhof, a marketplace in the center of the city, in front of one of the festival stages set up for live music.
Solingen was in lockdown on Saturday while police forces were looking to arrest the assailant.
While police representatives avoided to brand the attack as a terrorist incident, the motive was being investigated.
DeutscheWelle reports that the big problem in the police search is the lack of indications as to the assailant’s appearance or location.
Massive police operation in search for Germany stabbing assailant
Musician Topic, a native of Solinger who performed at a stage near the one where the stabbing had taken place, described on Instagram the moment he was approached with instructions by security personnel.
“They asked me to please continue playing to avoid causing a mass panic, as there were already people killed by a stabbing attacker.”
After 10-15 minutes, the crowd was eventually informed about the incident.
“Since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” Topic concluded.
Large areas of Solinger were cordoned off and barriers set up as police continued their search for the stabbing assailants on Saturday.
According to the German daily Bild, heavily armed units with forty special vehicles from all over North Rhine-Westphalia had been deployed to Solingen, supported by the federal government.
“The brutal attack on the city festival in Solingen has shocked us deeply. We mourn the people whose lives were snatched from them in such a terrible way. My thoughts are with the families of those killed and those seriously injured,” said Nancy Faeser, Federal Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and determine the background to the attack,” she added.
Chancellor Olaf Scholtz posted on X that the perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law.
Tougher laws to tackle knife crime in Germany
Earier in August, Minister Faeser had called for tougher laws to tackle knife crime in Germany.
She suggested that only blades of 6 cm would be allowed to be carried in public, rather than the current 12 cm, and switchblades would be banned altogether.
Faeser voiced her concern after police statistics recorded a 9.7 percent year-on-year rise in cases of serious bodily harm involving a knife, according to the DeutscheWelle.