German police have arrested a 26-year-old Syrian national in connection with a stabbing rampage in Solingen that left three people dead and eight injured. The suspect turned himself in and admitted to the crime, according to officials. The attack, which took place during a festival celebrating Solingen’s 650th anniversary, was claimed by ISIL, although this has yet to be verified.
Authorities had been searching for the suspect for 24 hours before his arrest, which came after a manhunt that led to two other arrests that were determined not to be the perpetrator. The suspect is being questioned, and evidence has been seized. He was reportedly affiliated with a refugee home that was searched earlier in the day.
The victims of the attack were three individuals aged 56, 56, and 67. There appeared to be no known connections between them, according to prosecutors. The suspect, who arrived in Germany in 2022 and had been granted protected immigration status, was not previously known to security services as an extremist.
The ISIL group, which previously controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the attack, although its territorial defeat in 2017 has raised questions about its credibility. The Festival of Diversity, where the attack occurred, has been cancelled in the wake of the tragedy. Solingen is a city of 150,000 people located between Duesseldorf and Cologne.
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