Several people killed at a festival in Germany

German police said three people were killed and at least five seriously injured. The attacks took place during a festival in the city of Solingen.

At 0600, Reuters reported that at least eight people were injured, five of them seriously. Half an hour after midnight, local police reported on the X website that several people were dead and injured after a knife attack, and asked people to stay away from the center of Solingen.

According to the German newspaper image Police Chief Sascha Christa, a police spokesman in Wuppertal, is said to have stated the following:

– The attacker stabbed people randomly with a knife. There are currently three dead, four seriously injured and people in shock. A large-scale manhunt is underway for the attacker, and we definitely want to catch the perpetrator.

The newspaper also wrote that the perpetrator must have stabbed the victims directly in the throat, and that this is one of the reasons why police are treating the incident as a terrorist act. The victims who were attacked are said to have been close to the scene of the incident.

Mayor Tim Kurzbach wrote that they now have to provide care for the dead and wounded.

– Tonight we are all in Solingen in shock, horror and deep sorrow. We wanted to celebrate the anniversary of our city together, and now we have to mourn the dead and wounded. It breaks my heart that there was an assassination attempt in our city.

DJ Topic was on stage during the knife attack. He is from Solingen himself, and a great artist in Germany.

hiding in the store

Shortly after midnight, he posted an Instagram story, where he commented on the stabbing incident:

– I'm sitting here by the window where I grew up as a teenager and a child, and suddenly helicopters are flying around looking for a mass murderer. This is unreal.

He writes that when he was on stage, city security personnel approached him and asked him to continue playing to avoid panic, and that people had already been killed.

“So I kept playing, even though it was really hard. After about 10 to 15 minutes, the music finally stopped and people were informed about the incident,” he wrote on Instagram.

It is also reported that the attacker targeted people's necks and attacked them randomly.

– Since the attacker was still at large, we hid in a nearby store, while police helicopters circled overhead. I still can't believe it. This was supposed to be a free-for-all festival. My close friends were there with their young children… I am writing all this, while a helicopter is still hovering over the house where I grew up as a child, in a “small” town in Germany. What is happening to this world… My thoughts go out to all the victims.

pools of blood

A witness told local newspaper Tagblatt that someone fell right next to him. When he turned around, he saw several people lying on the ground with pools of blood around them.

Officers from the North Rhine-Westphalia police special force were brought to Solingen on Saturday night. In addition, 40 special vehicles were sent and large parts of the city centre were closed off.

Friday night writing Solingen Tagplatte The festival was cancelled after the incident shortly after 10 p.m.

big festival

A big city festival is being announced on the city's Instagram account to mark the 650th anniversary of Solingen under the name “Diversity Festival”. The festival will take place from Friday to Sunday. The number of visitors was expected to exceed 80,000.

According to the Solingen Tageblatt newspaper, the incident must have taken place in the city's Frohnhof Square.

Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively rare in Germany, Reuters reported.

• In June, a 29-year-old policeman lost his life after being stabbed in the German city of Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration.
• There was also a stabbing incident on a train in 2021, in which several people were injured.

The German government aims to tighten rules on knives that can be carried in public places by reducing the permitted length.