The investigation into a man is now in the hands of federal prosecutors as being a case of suspected terrorism, a police spokesperson said on Sunday.
The attacks on Friday evening, in which three people died and eight were injured, has been claimed by the extremist The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is now examining whether a suspect who handed himself in on Saturday evening has links with the terrorist organization.
Police said the suspect, identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man, had admitted responsibility for the attack and was currently being questioned. German news magazine Spiegel reported that the suspect came to Germany in 2022 as a refugee and applied for asylum in the city of Bielefeld.
According to Spiegel, the suspect will be taken to the southern city of Karlsruhe on Sunday to appear before the Federal Court of Justice, the highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction in Germany. A judge at the court will then decide on the conditions of his pre-trial detention, the magazine said.
Random stabbings at ‘Festival of Diversity’
at an event in Solingen’s market square to mark 650 years of the city’s history.
Two men, aged 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman were killed by the knife-wielding attacker, who also injured eight other people, four of them seriously.
The assailant fled unidentified amid the panic caused by the attacks, which police said deliberately targeted victims’ throats.
On Saturday, IS claimed responsibility for the attack on its news site, without providing evidence. The extremist group said that a “soldier of the Islamic State” had carried out the crimes “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
The claim has not been verified.
German officials have said that they have also arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion that he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities.
The Solingen incident is likely to further inflame and possibly boost support for the far-right ahead of elections next week in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony, where the party already enjoys considerable popularity.
tj/nm (AP, dpa, Reuters)
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