Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Solingen suspect in custody as German city mourns stabbing victims

Police officers secure a crime scene after the Solingen city festival on Saturday in Solingen, Germany.  (Andreas Rentz)
Germany Press Agency

German Press Agency

SOLINGEN, Germany – The suspect in the western city of Solingen knife attack, which claimed the lives of three people and wounded several others, has been remanded in custody by order of an investigating judge.

A judge issued a formal arrest warrant on suspicion of murder and membership of the Islamic State terrorist group, among other charges, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Syrian shares the ideology of the Islamic State terrorist organization and joined it sometime before Aug. 23, the statement said. A deportation attempt of the asylum seeker failed in 2023, it added.

The Spiegel magazine reported earlier that the suspect came to Germany at the end of December 2022 and applied for asylum.

Due to his radical Islamist convictions, the suspect decided to kill as many people he considered to be infidels as possible at the Solingen city festival, prosecutors said. “There, he repeatedly and deliberately stabbed festival visitors in the neck and upper body areas from behind with a knife.”

The attack took place on Friday evening at a market square in Solingen’s city center, where a stage was set up for live music during the Festival of Diversity, which was being thrown to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary.

Those killed in the attack were two men, aged 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman. Eight people were wounded, four of them seriously, according to the local police chief.

The attacker apparently chose his victims at random but appeared to target their necks, he said. The perpetrator subsequently escaped in the chaos and initial panic.

Police said on Saturday night that a suspect handed himself in and admitted responsibility for the attack. He was reportedly wearing blood-stained clothing when he handed himself in, German Press Agency was told by a source in the police.

Islamic State claimed responsibility

Islamic State claimed that the attacker was an Islamic State member, according to a statement on the group’s mouthpiece Amak. The attack was carried out as “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere,” it said. The attack was targeted at a “group of Christians.”

The Dusseldorf police also received what they claimed to be a confession they said. However, they need to verify the authenticity of this letter, said a police spokesman.

According to security authorities, the threat of terrorism and radicalization in the Islamic world has increased due to the prolonged war in the Gaza Strip. Germany, along with the United States, is one of Israel’s most important allies and also one of its key arms suppliers.

Hopes raised for seriously injured

The severely injured victims are on the road to recovery, it was reported on Sunday.

“All four patients have a very good chance of making a full recovery,” said Thomas Standl, medical director at the Solingen Municipal Hospital, to Welt TV.

One of the victims had to be ventilated for several hours, said Standl. He had stabilized quickly and was able to answer questions during the ward round on Sunday morning.

“The patient described to me quite impressively that he didn’t actually feel any pain at all, but bent over after a woman who was bleeding from the neck – and then felt something like a dull thud on his back,” said Standl.

This was apparently a deep knife thrust into a large vein in his chest, which critically injured him. At such moments, people release so much adrenalin that they may feel neither pain nor fear of death.

A city in mourning

The crime scene in the city center remained cordoned off on Sunday morning and several police cars were still on the scene.

The mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, said on Saturday evening that “the pain is infinitely large” in the city following the attack.

“We in Solingen are deeply affected, our city is full of grief. But not being alone in this grief is a good sign,” said Kurzbach.

In addition to the emergency services, he also wanted to thank many people from all over Germany and from abroad for their expressions of sympathy. He said he received condolences from all over the world.

Hundreds of people gathered in a church within sight of the crime scene for a memorial service on Sunday morning.

The crowds were large – volunteers pushed additional chairs into the church at times.

“At such times, we feel our helplessness and our powerlessness,” said the pastor, Friederike Höroldt.

The service had been intended to help mark the 650th anniversary, but “now everything is different,” Höroldt.

Political tensions ahead of state elections

Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the attack a “terrible crime” and urged that the perpetrator be severely punished.

The chancellor is scheduled to visit Solingen on Monday, where he will join the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, to pay tribute to the victims of the attack.

Politically, the attack, just over a week before the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, has reignited debates about stricter knife laws and migration policy.