Knifeman kills 3 people at ‘Festival of Diversity’ in German city; 5 battling for life

SOLINGEN: Three people were killed and at least five were serious wounded after a lonewolf armed with knife went on a rampage at a festival in the western German city of Solingen late on Friday.

The police learnt about the attack after being alerted by witnesses around 9.30 pm. Though the details of the incident is not yet clear, the police said they believed he acted alone

According to the police, they have only little information about the attacker as the person was on the run. However, they believe that only one person was involved in the attack.

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 also said and added that the attacker had left the scene “relatively quickly.”

Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post that “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.

The 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 on 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 cancelled 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, this month 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) which is allowed now.