Germany knife attack: At least three people killed and five injured during a festival in Solingen

an attacker armed with a knife Three people were killed and at least five were seriously injured At a festival held in downtown Solin late Friday nightYesin, to the west of GermanyAccording to officials.

Witnesses reported to police shortly after 9:30 p.m. that an unidentified man had stabbed several people indiscriminately in the central square, Fronhof, police said. The attacker had fled and so far he had very little information about the man.

They believe the stabbing was the work of a lone assailant.

Philip Muller, one of the festival’s organisers, came on stage and asked attendees to do so “Go in peace; please keep your eyes open, as unfortunately the car has not been caught.”

He said several people were injured by “stabbing people.”

At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while numerous police and emergency vehicles were on the road with flashing blue lights and several roads were closed.

Police have put the number of seriously injured at five. The region’s top security official, Herbert Rule, gave the six-figure figure when he visited the scene early Saturday.

“None of us knows why the attack happened,” said Reul, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

“I can’t say anything about the motive right now” and it was unclear who the attacker was, he also said the attacker had left the scene. “Relatively fast.”

“We are all shocked in Solingen tonight,” Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post. “We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have deaths and injuries to mourn.” “It breaks my heart that our city has been attacked,” he added.

Local newspapers Solinger Tagblatt Its reporter Celine Derichretz, who was covering the festival, was quoted as saying that “the atmosphere was horrible.” She said that the party atmosphere turned into chaos within minutes and that she saw festival-goers crying.

The variety festival, celebrating the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was due to run until Sunday, offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics on several stages along the central streets.

The city cancelled the rest of the festivities after the attack. Solingen has about 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the larger cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf.

In recent times, concerns have been raised about Knife violence on the rise in Germany.

In May, a police officer was killed in a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant on members of a group describing itself as opposed to “political Islam”.

Interior Minister Nancy Facer this month proposed tightening gun laws so that only knives with blades up to 6 centimetres long could be carried in public places, instead of the 12 centimetres currently allowed.

According to police statistics, last year there were 9,000 cases A knife injury incident in Germany.

(With information from AP and EFE)