German Police Arrest 26-Year-Old Man Over Solingen Stabbing Attack

Authorities in Germany have arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the stabbing attack in Solingen, as investigations continue into the motive behind the incident

A suspect has been apprehended by the German police in connection with a stabbing frenzy that claimed three lives and wounded eight others in Solingen, located in the western part of the country.

On Sunday, the Duesseldorf police and prosecutors issued a joint statement stating that a 26-year-old Syrian man who had turned himself in confessed to committing the crime.

“They said that the person’s involvement is presently under rigorous investigation.”

The assault, purportedly executed by ISIL (ISIS), remains unconfirmed, and occurred on Friday evening during a festival commemorating Solingen’s 650th anniversary.

On German television Saturday night, a state official disclosed the detention of an individual who authorities had been seeking for 24 hours since the assault.

After a day of pursuing a “hot lead” that resulted in the arrest, Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia state’s interior minister expressed his sense of relief to ARD broadcaster.

According to Reul, police conducted a manhunt throughout the day and made two arrests which were believed to not be of the perpetrator.

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He stated, “The one we’ve just arrested is the actual culprit.” The person is currently being interrogated and proof has been confiscated. He included that the man had connections with a refugee dwelling that underwent exploration earlier in the day.

A prosecutor announced on Saturday that an additional individual has been apprehended – a 15-year-old accused of not reporting a criminal offense.

According to Markus Caspers, the prosecutor of Duesseldorf located west of Solingen, witnesses claimed that they had seen the teen conversing with a man who may have been responsible for the attack shortly before it took place.

The suspect, reported by Bild and Spiegel newspapers, was a 26-year-old Syrian who had arrived in Germany during December of the year 2022. He obtained a protected immigration status typically awarded to individuals fleeing their war-torn homeland.

According to the outlets, he was not previously identified as an “extremist” by the security services.

ISIL once possessed extensive regions of land in Iraq and Syria, along with carrying out numerous lethal assaults across the globe. However, their control over territory drastically diminished by 2017 as a result of multiple defeats at the hands of both Iraqi government forces and various factions involved in the Syrian civil war — ultimately resulting in an overthrowing of their oppressive reign.

Previously, the group has taken responsibility for attacks that it did not participate in, such as the mass shooting incident that took place in Las Vegas back in 2017.

Officials stated that the individuals who lost their lives on Friday were a woman aged 56 and two men, one of whom was also 56 while the other was 67 years old.

“There were no known connections between the victims,” Caspers stated during a press briefing.

The assault took place amidst a crowd of numerous individuals who assembled before a platform on the opening night of the “Festival of Diversity,” which has subsequently been called off.

Located between Duesseldorf and Cologne, Solingen is home to about 150,000 residents.