The Daily Populous Saturday August 24th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by apnews.com and submitted by pepsi_honda

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — An attacker with a knife killed three people and seriously wounded at least five late Friday at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, authorities said.

Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. to an unknown attacker having wounded several people indiscriminately with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said the perpetrator was on the run, and they had only very little information on the man so far.

They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker.

One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.”

He said many people had been wounded by “a knifeman.”

At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.

Police put the number of seriously injured at five. The region’s top security official, Herbert Reul, gave a figure of six as he visited the scene in the early hours of Saturday.

“None of us knows why” the attack took place, said Reul, who is the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

“I can’t say anything about the motive now” and it isn’t clear who the assailant was, he said, but the attacker left the scene “relatively quickly.”

Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post, “This evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”

“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.

Local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter covering the festival, as saying that “the atmosphere is spooky.” She said a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and she saw festivalgoers weeping.

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

The city canceled the rest of the festival after the attack. Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.

There has been concern about an increase in knife violence in Germany recently.

In May, a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant on members of a group that describes itself as opposing “political Islam” left a police officer dead.

Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) that is allowed now.

Expensive_Role8613 on August 24th, 2024 at 00:33 UTC »

I live very close to the location it happened. The City is literally a ghost town right now. People have been checking their backyards and basements like crazy.

Everyone is home, hoping for the police to find him. But honestly, things are not looking good. There have been choppers and special units around but everything has silenced. No helicopters, barely any cars.

Mikeshaffer on August 24th, 2024 at 00:08 UTC »

TL;DR

Knife attack at a festival in Solingen, Germany. 3 people killed, 5+ seriously wounded. Attack happened Friday night. Attacker still at large. Festival celebrating city’s 650th anniversary canceled. Motive unknown. Concerns over rising knife violence in Germany.

OsamaCare7755 on August 23rd, 2024 at 21:55 UTC »

Fucking disgusting.