Germany knife attack: Police hunt attacker, 3 dead, 8 injured

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — A large-scale search was underway Saturday in the west German The town of Solingen after three people were killed and at least eight people injured, five of them seriously, in a knife attack at a festival.

“Police are currently conducting a large-scale search for the perpetrator,” police said in a statement. They gathered a large number of forces around the center of Solingen, including special units. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being interviewed,” they said.

Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Friday that an unknown assailant had injured several people with a knife in a central square, Fronhof. Police said the perpetrator was on the run and so far they had very little information about the attacker.

They said they believed the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker and did not release information on the identities of the victims.

The “Festival of Diversity”, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, started on Friday and was due to run until Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

Solingen has approximately 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the larger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.

“We are deeply shocked by the brutal attack on Solingen’s city festival,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement Saturday morning. “Our security authorities are doing everything possible to catch the perpetrator and establish the background to the attack.”

There have been concerns about increasing knife violence in Germany, and Faeser recently proposed tightening gun laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than of 12 centimeters (4.7). inches) that is currently allowed.