SOLINGEN, GERMANY – In a horrific turn of events, a knife attack took place in the city of Solingen, in western Germany, during the city’s 650th-anniversary celebrations on Friday night. The stabbing spree was carried out by an unidentified male suspect and left three people dead and eight injured, five of them critically.
The incident occurred as thousands upon thousands of residents and visitors came together at the city’s central square for the festival of diversity. According to German police, no arrest has been made so far, but a wide-scale search operation is underway, deploying a multitude of personnel, including a helicopter team.
Various residents were reportedly in a state of shock following the event. An eyewitness, Lars Breitzke, recounted the chilling moments when he was merely meters away from the attack. The scene was so chaotic and horrifying that he initially mistook the severity of the event for public drunkenness, but the eventual sight of multiple people on the ground and pools of blood served as harrowing proof otherwise.
German law enforcement described the lone assailant as male, but they were still gathering information about the suspect’s appearance and characteristics to bolster the ongoing manhunt.
German political figures expressed their deep shock and condolences. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated the urgency for the security authorities to capture the culprit and determine the motive behind the brutal attack. German Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach hoped that the medical and police forces could do their utmost in saving the wounded and apprehending the “cowardly and pathetic perpetrator.”
Solingen’s Mayor, Tim-Oliver Kurzbach, expressed immense sadness at the tragic event, paying heed to the victims, the eyewitnesses, and the emergency response teams. The rest of the festival has been called off, while police have established a platform for eyewitnesses to share information and footage from the attack.