German police are hunting for a man who on Friday night attacked nearly a dozen people with a knife, killing three, during a street festival in the western city of Solingen. The police have interviewed witnesses and survivors, but so far have not divulged the man’s motive, if they know it.
On Saturday, the police said they had detained a man for questioning whom they believed might have knowledge about the attacker. They said they did not think the man in custody was the attacker.
What happened?
Shortly before 10 p.m., the attacker started stabbing people who had gathered at the public festival to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary. The attacks occurred during a live music performance, not far from a temporary stage set up for the event, which was billed as a “Festival of Diversity.” The police said it appeared that the attacker chose victims from the crowd at random.
The festival, which was planned to run through Sunday, was immediately canceled as emergency workers tended to the injured and the police tried to get a handle on the situation.
Besides the three people who died of their injuries, another eight were injured. Of those, five remain in critical condition.
What’s next?
“Our authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and to determine the background of the attack,” Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement on Saturday. Officers from neighboring areas have been brought in to try to help the local police find the attacker.
The police interviewed witnesses and survivors throughout the night in the hopes of finding clues leading to the attacker. They have so far declined to make public any details about the man.
The police have asked people to stay clear of Solingen’s city center.
Two neighboring towns have also canceled public festivals that they had planned for the weekend. “We cannot celebrate when our neighboring city is mourning just a few kilometers away,” said Bettina Warnecke, the mayor of Haan, which canceled its wine festival. In comments reported by the D.P.A., a German news service, Ms. Warnecke noted that security was also an issue, given that the police had not found the man they believed to be the attacker.
What are some key facts about Solingen?
Solingen, home to more than 150,000 people, is just east of Düsseldorf, the capital of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.
Known around the world for the production of high-end knives and scissors, Solingen calls itself the “city of blades.” The attack happened in the busy square at the heart of the festival celebrating the 650th anniversary of the first written mention of the city.
Solingen is a diverse city that has benefited from foreign workers since the guest worker programs of the 1960s brought foreign workers to the city’s many blade manufacturers. More than 20 percent of the city’s residents are not German citizens, and thousands more hold dual citizenship.
The city was the site of one of the most traumatizing racist attacks in postwar Germany, in 1993, when a group of young neo-Nazis set fire to a house inhabited by a Turkish family. Five people were killed, including three children, and 17 people were injured.
Read More: What We Know About the Knife Attack in Germany That Killed 3
