German authorities have arrested the suspected knifeman responsible for killing three people and injuring eight in the city of Solingen on Friday at a public festival in the city.
The alleged perpetrator is a 26-year-old Syrian man, who reportedly arrived in the EU country in December 2022 and was granted asylum.
According to the reports, the suspect, still covered in blood, turned himself in to the police shortly after 11pm, saying “I’m the one you’re looking for.” He was reportedly hiding in a nearby backyard.
Before, the ministry said that they were looking for the “real suspect” after detaining two people who were likely not the perpetrators. These included a 15-year-old boy, who supposedly knew about the planned attack but failed to report it to the authorities. A second man was arrested at a refugee center located close to the scene of the attack.
“The man we’ve really been looking for the whole day has just been taken into custody,” Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told ARD public TV on Saturday.
“I myself am a bit relieved at the moment,” the minister said, after the third arrest was made, adding that police had also found “pieces of evidence.”
Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman, were stabbed to death by the knifeman, who went on a killing spree during a celebration of Solingen City’s 650th anniversary. According to the reports of eyewitnesses in the media, “an Arab-looking man” stabbed spectators at random, “targeting” people’s throats and necks.
”The victims were completely unknown, with no known ties between them,” Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf, which is near Solingen, said at a press conference after the attack.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim has yet to be verified.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attack as a “horrific act,” and "a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. ... We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” he said, in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter).