The group said in a statement published on its Amaq news site that the attacker targeted Christians, ‘to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.’
ADVERTISEMENTThe so-called Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the German city of Solingen on Friday evening that killed three people and wounded eight others.
The group said in a statement published on its Amaq news site that the attacker is a ‘soldier of the Islamic State’ who targeted Christians and carried out the attack ‘to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.’
That announcement comes after German police told the dpa news agency that a second person had been arrested in connection with the stabbings.
Saturday’s arrest happened in a refugee centre in Solingen. Earlier the same day, police detained a 15-year-old who allegedly had prior knowledge of the attacks.
«We have received tips and therefore we are currently conducting police activities,» a police spokesperson said.
Markus Caspers, from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutors office, said in a news conference on Saturday that authorities have not found the perpetrator and that the manhunt continues.
«So far we have not been able to identify a motive, but looking at the overall circumstances, we cannot rule out», the possibility of terrorism, he said.
The three people who died were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
Thorsten Fleiss from the German police, who was the chief of operations on Friday night, said that police are conducting various searches and investigations across the entire state of North Rhine Westphalia.
He said that it is a «big challenge» to bring together available evidence and testimony from witnesses in order to come up with a overall picture.
Fleiss also said that police have found several knives but added that he was unable to confirm whether any of them have been used as weapon by the perpetrator during the attack.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that the perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished with the full force of the law.
«The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I have just spoken to Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families,» he said in a post on X.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time on Friday to an unknown attacker who had wounded several people after stabbing indiscriminately in downtown Solingen.
Solingen was hosting the ‘Festival of Diversity’ to mark the 650th anniversary of the city. It was supposed to run until Sunday but the event has since been called off.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf.
