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A 26-year-old Syrian man confessed to a knife attack in Solingen, Germany, during a diversity celebration on Friday, during which he killed three people and injured eight others. The examining magistrate at the Federal Court of Karlsruhe issued an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of membership in the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) and triple murder.
According to the statement from investigators, the Syrian identified with the ideology of the Islamic State and joined the group before launching the attack on August 23. Due to his radical Islamic beliefs, he decided to kill as many infidels as possible at a town festival in Solingen.
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Ruhl announced the arrest late Saturday, saying police had caught the “real suspect.”
The Syrian applied for asylum in Bielefeld, Germany in December 2022. But his request was rejected and the man was deported to Bulgaria the following year. This was the first EU country he entered. Under the Dublin Convention, the EU country that an asylum seeker first enters is responsible for handling the asylum procedure.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the man on suspicion of triple murder, multiple murder attempts and membership in the Islamic State movement. The suspect will be transferred to Karlsruhe on Sunday, according to German media reports. German authorities have not yet registered the man as an Islamic extremist.
“We have not yet established a motive, but based on the totality of the circumstances we believe that we cannot rule out initial suspicions of terrorist-motivated behavior,” senior prosecutor Markus Caspers said on Saturday.
The victims of Friday’s attack were two men and one woman. Six other people were seriously injured, four of whom are now out of danger, according to the German news agency DPA. The crime scene in the city center remained cordoned off on Sunday morning. Hundreds of people gathered in the morning for a funeral for the dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the act late Saturday, but did not provide evidence.
A 15-year-old boy was in police custody Saturday morning and is suspected of knowing about the planned attack but not telling authorities. However, he was not the attacker.
The attack took place on Friday evening in the West German city of Solingen, a city of about 160,000 people known for its knife production. The city is currently celebrating its 650th anniversary. Another part of the event, called a “celebration of diversity,” that was scheduled for this weekend was canceled by authorities.
No long knife
Knife attacks are a big problem in Germany and are on the rise. On Monday, Munich police shot and killed a woman who attacked them with a knife. Earlier in June, a police officer was stabbed to death by an attacker during a movement criticizing Islam in central Mannheim. Five members of the movement, including its leader, were also injured.
The interior minister has announced an expansion of the areas where knives are banned. This measure is already in effect in some train stations or problematic city centers. The minister also wants to limit the permitted blade length to six centimeters and completely ban knives with shooting blades.
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