German police say Syrian suspect confesses to knife rampage

 

Members of a special police unit escort a man suspected to be responsible for the Solingen knife attack from a helicopter to the office of the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, on August 25, 2024. [AFP]

A Syrian man suspected of belonging to a "terrorist group" has given himself up and confessed to killing three people and wounding eight others in a knife rampage at a German street festival, officials said on Sunday.

The random attack as thousands of people gathered on Friday night in the western city of Solingen has stunned Germany.

Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed, officials said.

Four of the wounded remained in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, according to police.

Police said in a statement that the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had "given himself up to authorities... and declared himself responsible for the attack".

German prosecutors said they had launched a "terrorist" investigation and ordered on Sunday the pre-trial detention of the man, who is suspected of belonging to a "terrorist group".

The suspect identified as "Syrian national Issa Al H" will be detained over "strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group abroad" as well as of murder and attempted murder, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The jihadist Islamic State group's Amaq propaganda arm has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying "the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians" in Solingen "was a soldier of the Islamic State".

IS said the attack was carried out as "revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere", in an apparent reference to the Gaza conflict.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

According to the Bild and Spiegel newspapers, the suspect arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing war-torn Syria.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said the suspect was not known to the security services as an extremist considered dangerous.

Habeck -- who called for tougher knife laws on Sunday -- said "Islamic terrorism" was one of "the biggest security dangers" Germany faces.

High alert

Flowers, candles and messages lined the streets near the festival in Solingen, where the rampage took place as thousands of people gathered on Friday for the first night of a "Festival of Diversity", part of a series of events to mark the city's 650th anniversary.

The whole festival has now been cancelled.

The youth wing of Germany's far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party, Junge Alternative, said it planned to hold a demonstration near the scene later on Sunday, with a counter-protest also planned.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to visit the scene of the tragedy on Monday.

German officers indicated Sunday that a suspect arrested a day before at a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of the attack, was being considered a "witness".

A 15-year-old boy was also arrested, suspected of failing to report a criminal act.

National and local leaders, including Scholz, said the country had been "deeply shocked" by the deaths in Solingen, a city of 160,000 people.

Germany has been on high alert for extremist attacks since the Gaza war erupted on October 7 with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

German street festivals and markets have previously been hit.

A truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 killed 12 people. In May, a police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in Mannheim, with an Islamist motive suspected.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had warned this month that Germany was in "the firing line" of Islamist groups.

During a visit to the site of the tragedy Faeser called for the country to "remain united" as she denounced "those who want to stir up hatred".

"Let us not be divided," she said.

Scholz's centre-left coalition faces regional elections next week in the east of the country, where the far-right AfD is leading in polls.

Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 at the height of Europe's migrant crisis.

The influx was deeply divisive in Germany and fuelled the popularity of the AfD.