Berlin, Aug 24 (EFE).— A 15-year-old boy was detained Saturday in Solingen, suspected of involvement in a knife attack that killed three people and injured eight others, several seriously, in the western German city a day earlier.
«The 15-year-old was arrested this morning,» police spokesman Thorsten Fleiss said at a press conference.
The teenager is believed to have known about the attack beforehand but did nothing to stop it. However, investigators do not consider him the attacker, who is thought to have acted alone. The arrest was made during an ongoing manhunt for the perpetrator.
Prosecutor General Markus Caspers, leading the investigation, said authorities have yet to determine the motive but «cannot rule out» terrorism.
The investigation is focused on three counts of murder and eight counts of severe bodily harm. «Given the circumstances, the suspicion of a terrorist-motivated act cannot be dismissed,» Caspers said.
Police have asked those with evidence or images of the attack to submit them through a dedicated online portal to aid in the investigation.
The incident occurred during a concert at Fronhof, a marketplace in the city center, as part of Solingen’s 650th-anniversary diversity festival.
The festival was canceled, with organizers urging attendees to leave carefully as the suspect remained at large. «People are shocked, but left the square peacefully,» organizer Philipp Müller told local news website Solinger Tageblatt.
Festival-goer Lars Breitzke described standing near the stage when he noticed something was wrong by the look on the singer’s face. «Then a person collapsed just a meter away from me.»
Initially thinking the person was drunk, Breitzke soon saw others lying on the ground, with pools of blood around them.
Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach expressed deep sorrow on Facebook. «This evening, we are all in shock, horror, and great sadness in Solingen.”
He said the city wanted to celebrate its anniversary, “and now we have to mourn the dead and injured.”
North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state Minister-President Hendrik Wüst wrote on X that the state is united in shock and grief. «An act of brutal and senseless violence has struck our country to the heart,» he said.
NRW’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul has traveled to Solingen, a city of about 160,000 residents near Cologne and Düsseldorf. At least 80,000 visitors were expected over the weekend for Solingen’s anniversary festival, which was to continue until Sunday with various concerts and shows.
The attack occurred just days after Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced plans to crack down on knife crime. Police statistics recorded 9,000 cases of knife injuries in Germany last year. EFE
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