The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the mass stabbing in Solingen, Germany that left at least three people dead on Friday. The suspect, who has not been identified yet, shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before attacking festival-goers, local media outlet Welt reported citing witnesses.
ISIS said in a statement on Saturday that one of its members carried out attack 'in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere'.
"The perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State' group, said a statement from the jihadists," Amaq news agency reported on the Telegram messaging app.
On Saturday, the culprit was the target of a massive manhunt by the authorities. Three individuals were killed and eight others were injured, four of them seriously, in the Friday night tragedy. A 56-year-old lady and two males, ages 67 and 56, were among the victims.
Investigators were thinking about whether there may have been a terrorist motive when the police quickly declared the incident to be an attack. Markus Caspers, a senior public prosecutor, stated that the suspect had stabbed the victims in the neck with the intention of harming them, which raised questions about whether the incident was planned and maybe linked to terrorism. To demonstrate the gravity of the inquiry, the Federal Prosecutor General had already despatched two representatives to Solingen to evaluate the situation.
According to reports, the suspect—who is still at large—was well-known in Solingen and had frequented a nearby mosque. A witness who was hurt in the incident claims that the attacker yelled "Allahu Akbar" when he stabbed people. Authorities are still looking into many knives that were seized as part of their inquiry; they have not yet issued a description of the offender.
The incident happened in Germany at a period of increased knife-related violence. There had been a notable surge in these types of occurrences, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, which documented 8,951 cases of "dangerous and serious bodily harm" involving knives in the previous year, a 9.7 percent increase over the year before. 214,099 violent crimes were registered in Germany last year, an 8.6% rise from 2022, and this was also the country's greatest level of violent crime in 15 years.
Early on Saturday morning, a 15-year-old suspect was first taken into custody by the police. Authorities subsequently stated, nevertheless, that they did not think the young person was the culprit. It was necessary to conduct more investigation notwithstanding the teen's stated conversations with someone else regarding plans related to the crime. The police did not corroborate reports of a second arrest that was made later in the day.
The incident has also drawn criticism for the town festival's lack of camera surveillance. The German Police Union's leader, Rainer Wendt, stressed the need of contemporary video equipment at significant events, claiming that this would help to ensure that law enforcement is not left in the dark following assaults. He demanded that Germany take a more proactive stance in the fight against terrorism.
Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, emphasized the need of enabling the police to carry out their investigations in-depth. He gave the people his word that every resource at hand was being used to solve the crime. But there were still a lot of unresolved questions, and the police kept going over a lot of witness accounts trying to put together what happened that terrible evening.