At a “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen, the perpetrator stabbed his victims without warning. Now the police have arrested a person in a refugee shelter.
In connection with the knife attack in Solingen, the police have arrested a person in a refugee shelter in the city. The connection between the crimes is now being investigated, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency. He could not yet comment on the identity of the person.
The police had previously stormed the refugee accommodation in the former tax office in Solingen with strong forces. “We have received information and based on this we are currently carrying out police measures,” said a police spokesman. A special task force is also in action. The area is cordoned off by a hundred officers.
At the same time, a letter claiming responsibility was received from the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). The attacker was an IS member and carried out the attack, in which three people were killed and eight seriously injured, out of “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere,” according to a statement from the IS mouthpiece Amak. The attack was aimed at a “group of Christians.” The Düsseldorf police said that it had to be checked whether the letter was genuine. Investigators pointed out that in the past, IS had often claimed responsibility for an attack without there being any reliable evidence of real cooperation with the perpetrator.
The investigating public prosecutor’s office had not ruled out a terrorist background to the crime even before the arrest and the letter of confession. “We have not been able to identify a motive so far, but given the overall circumstances, we assume that the initial suspicion of a terrorist-motivated crime cannot be ruled out,” said senior public prosecutor Markus Caspers at a press conference in Wuppertal in the afternoon. No other motive is currently apparent. If there are no indications of a terrorist crime, the Federal Prosecutor General could consider taking over the case.
A 15-year-old youth had already been arrested that morning, but the police do not believe that he is the perpetrator. According to witnesses, an as yet unknown person spoke to the youth shortly before the crime about intentions that would be consistent with the crime, said Caspers. It is not known whether this person is the perpetrator.
Three people were killed in the attack at a district festival on Friday evening, two men aged 67 and 56 and a woman aged 56. Eight people were injured, four of them seriously. The perpetrator apparently chose the victims at random. He then escaped in the tumult and initial panic after the attack. The police continued to warn the people of Solingen to be cautious on Saturday.
Source: Stern
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