Three killed in stabbing attack at festival in Germany

German police on Saturday morning said they were still searching for an unknown assailant hours after a stabbing attack left three people dead and eight others wounded in western Germany.
At around 10pm local time on Friday, an unidentified man attacked people at a festival in the city of Solingen, police said. Five of the eight people injured were in a serious condition, they added.
“It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city,” Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said in a statement. “I have tears in my eyes when I think of what we have lost.”
Regional premier Hendrik Wuest also expressed his shock and grief in a post on social media platform X.
“An act of the most brutal and senseless violence has struck at the heart of our state,” he said. “The whole of North Rhine-Westphalia stands by the people of Solingen, especially the victims and their families.”
The attack occurred at the Fronhof, the mayor’s statement added, a market square where live bands were playing and locals were celebrating the town’s 650th anniversary.
Up to 75,000 visitors had been expected to attend over the three days of the festival.
The Solinger Tageblatt newspaper reported that one of the organisers of the festival had come on stage to call off the event.
North Rhine-Westphalia state is near Germany’s border with the Netherlands. The state’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, described the incident as an attack on human life but did not speculate on the possible motive behind it.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in Mannheim, in south-west Germany, during an attack on a right-wing demonstration.