SOLINGEN: German police on Saturday hunted a man who stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a street festival in the city of Solingen, with a terror motive for the attack “not excluded”.

The unidentified knifeman went on a rampage in the western town of Solingen late on Friday, as thousands had gathered for the first night of a “Festival of Diversity”, part of a series of events to mark the town’s 650th anniversary.

On Saturday, police announced they had detained a person as part of the probe, with a prosecutor later saying it was a 15-year-old suspected of “non-denunciation” of a criminal act.

Witnesses had allegedly seen the teen discussing the attack just before it happened with a man who could be the knifeman, said Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf that lies just west of Solingen.

“We have not been able to identify a motive for now, but in view of all of the circumstances, we are working under the assumption that the initial suspicion of a terrorist motive cannot be excluded,” Caspers told a press conference.

The people killed were men of 56 and 67 years of age and a 56-year-old woman, officials said.

Four of the wounded were in a “serious” condition, officials said, revising down an earlier estimate of five.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for the country to “remain united” as she denounced “those who want to stir up hatred” during a visit to the site of the tragedy. “Let us not be divided”, she said.

Hendrik Wuest, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, also expressed his “shock and grief” in a post on social media platform X.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024