EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on X: “Deeply shocked by the brutal and insidious attack in Solingen. My thoughts are with the families of the dead and the injured, to whom I wish a speedy recovery. We need clarity about the background to this crime as soon as possible.”
Von der Leyen is a German politician. She held cabinet positions, including defence minister, in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat (CDU) government.
People have begun to leave flowers and candles at the scene of the attack in Solingen.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke to the mayor of Solingen this morning.
In a statement, Steinmeier said: “The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn those killed and worry about those injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery from all my heart.”
“The perpetrator needs to be brought to justice. Let’s stand together — against hatred and violence.”
The band that was due to play on the stage near where at the attack took place has released a statement on Facebook.
The Udo Lindenberg tribute band, Der Udonaut und die Paniker, were due to play the Fronhof stage at 10pm. The attack happened at about 9.40pm and the performance was cancelled.
The band said: “We were supposed to play at the Fronhof in Solingen this evening,” the band wrote on Facebook. “Unfortunately, the festival was stopped by a cruel attack on this very square. We are safe! Please take care of yourselves.”
Updated
Düsseldorf police and the state capital’s public prosecutor’s office will hold a press conference at 3pm local time (2pm BST), Der Spiegel reports.
They will talk about current state of the investigation at the police headquarters in Wuppertal, a city near Solingen. Solingen’s mayor Tim Kurzbach is also expected to attend.
Updated
Solingen was holding celebrations for the 650th anniversary of the city when the attacker struck last night.
The celebrations involved a weekend-long festival of diversity, marking the anniversary, which began last night.
The event had several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics. Events centred around stages in Neumarkt, Mühlenplatz and Fronhof, the scene of last night’s attack.
Organisers said they hoped to “celebrate the future in solidarity and sustainability”.
The festival was due to run until Sunday, but organisers cancelled the event following last night’s attack.
Police are continuing to search for the attacker, in the city of Solingen and the surrounding area.
Solingen, where the attack took place at a festival of diversity last night, is a city in west Germany with a population of about 160,000 people.
The city is in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, which borders the Netherlands.
It lies about 15 miles east of Düsseldorf and a similar distance north east of Cologne.
Police are urging Solingen’s residents to continue to be cautious, German newspaper Der Spiegel reports.
“People in the city centre should be careful,” said a spokesman for the Düsseldorf police. “Anyone who sees a suspicious person should immediately call the emergency number 110 and not speak to them.”
President of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, added to the voices condemning the attack and hoping for a quick recovery for those injured.
“I am deeply shocked by this terrible attack on innocent citizens at the city festival in Solingen. Hate and violence must have no place in our society. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. I wish the injured a speedy recovery,” she said in a post on X.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, wrote in a post on X: “The perfidious attack in Solingen on people who were celebrating the 650th anniversary of their city shocked me deeply. My thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims. And my thanks go to the security forces who are searching intensively for the perpetrator.”
Perpetrator 'must be caught quickly and punished to fullest extent of the law', Scholz says
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that the perpetrator of the attack must be caught quickly and punished to fullest extent 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,” his statement on X read.
“I wish the injured a speedy recovery. The perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law.”
Those killed in last night’s attack were a woman and two men, according to North Rhine-Westphalia interior minister Herbert Reul, German newspaper Die Welt reports.
One of the festival organisers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage as the attack unfolded and asked attendees to “go calmly. Please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.”
The clip can be seen in the video at the top of this page (starting at 0:28).
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Solingen:
Police spokesman Markus Seitz denied reports on Saturday morning that the perpetrator had deliberately stabbed his victims in the neck: “The police currently have no reliable evidence that he aimed the knife at his victims’ necks,” German tabloid Bild reported.
German musician Topic said he was playing on a nearby stage when the attack occurred, Reuters reports.
He was told about what happened but was asked to continue “to avoid causing a mass panic attack”, he said in a post on Instagram. He was eventually told to stop, and “since the attacker was still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above us,” he wrote.
What we know so far
Three people have been killed and eight injured in a knife attack at a diversity festival in the western German city of Solingen, police said.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30pm last night to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof.
Police are still searching for the attacker, who fled the scene. They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker. The motive for the attack is still not clear.
The attack happened at a square in the city centre hosting the Festival of Diversity to mark the city’s 650th anniversary, which began on Friday and was supposed to run through to Sunday. Organisers were expecting thousands to attend.
Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.
This morning Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser gave an update on X, saying police were still searching for the attacker and trying establish a motive.
Updated
Security services 'doing all they can' to catch assailant
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said authorities are doing all they can to catch the perpetrator of last night’s attack.
“Our security authorities are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrator and investigate the background of the attack,” she said in a post on X.
Der brutale Anschlag auf das Stadtfest in Solingen erschüttert uns zutiefst. Wir trauern um die Menschen, die auf furchtbare Weise aus dem Leben gerissen wurden. Meine Gedanken sind bei den Familien der Getöteten und bei den Schwerverletzten. (1/2)
— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) August 24, 2024
Unsere Sicherheitsbehörden tun alles, um den Täter zu fassen und die Hintergründe des Anschlags zu ermitteln. Die Polizei NRW hat dabei jede Unterstützung des Bundes. Ich bin dazu mit NRW-Innenminister Herbert Reul und unseren Sicherheitsbehörden im laufenden Kontakt. (2/2)
— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) August 24, 2024
Updated
We’ll pause this live blog in a moment – it’s almost 3.25am in Solingen. You can read our full report here on the west German knife attacks and the police search for the perpetrator. Thanks for being with us.
The premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, the west German state that takes in Solingen, said the attacks had “struck our country to the heart”.
Hendrik Wüst posted on X:
North Rhine-Westphalia is united in shock and grief. In these dark hours, the people of our state and beyond are in Solingen with their hearts and thoughts.
An act of brutal and senseless violence has struck our country to the heart.
The whole of North Rhine-Westphalia stands by the people of Solingen, especially the victims and their families.
A big thank you goes to the many rescue workers and our police who are fighting for people’s lives at this very moment.
Updated
Solinger Tageblatt deputy editor Björn Boch has told the BBC the celebrations at the festival had been “supposed to last for three days, and the city expected 25,000 people every night”.
“The city was just packed with people,” he said, estimating that “a few thousands people” were at Friday’s free event.
Pictures have arrived of German special forces police at work in Solingen after Friday night’s stabbings. Police have said three people were killed and four seriously injured and a “large contingent” of police were searching for the perpetrator.
A witness who spoke to the local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt said he was a few metres from the attack, not far from the stage, and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.
“And then, a metre away from me, a person fell,” said the man, Lars Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who was drunk.
But when he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground and several pools of blood, he added.
Agence France-Presse also cited the newspaper as reporting that one of the co-organisers of the diversity festival came on stage after the attacks to cancel the event and that the crowd was asked to leave the city centre.
Following the announcement, thousands of attendees cleared the area, the paper reported, with a journalist at the scene describing the atmosphere as “ghostly”.
“People left the scene in shock, but calmly,” Philipp Mueller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper.
Germany has seen a series of knife attacks over the past 12 months, with the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, promising to crack down on knife crime. A police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in the south-western city of Mannheim in late May.
Here’s our just-updated full report on the knife attacks in the west German city of Solingen and the police search for the suspect:
The state interior minister, Herbert Reul, has visited the scene of the stabbings and told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the motive, Reuters reports.
Solingen is in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany’s most populous state and bordering the Netherlands.
The attack occurred at the Fronhof, the mayor has said, a market square where live bands were playing.
Updated
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted its reporter covering the festival as saying a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes after the attacks and that she saw festival-goers weeping.
“The atmosphere is spooky,” Celine Derikartz said, according to an Associated Press report.
The Festival of Diversity, marking the western German city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics, as we have reported.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
Updated
Police say knife used in attack and 'large contingent' searching for perpetrator
German police have issued a statement confirming a knife was used in the attacks in Solingen.
The statement from police in Wuppertal, posted on X (formerly Twitter), says:
Yesterday at around 10pm there was an attack at a street festival in #Solingen . An as yet unknown perpetrator attacked several people with a knife.
According to current knowledge, three people were killed and four others seriously injured in the attack.
The #Polizei is deployed with a large contingent and is searching for the fugitive perpetrator.
Updated
German police have said that so far they have only very thin information on the perpetrator of the attack, who is on the run, the Associated Press reports.
Police said they believed the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker.
One of the festival organisers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage earlier and asked festival-goers to “go calmly – please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught”.
He said many people had been wounded by “a knifeman”.
At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Updated
Here are some of the images coming in from Solingen after the attack.
Updated
The attack occurred amid a heated political debate about rising knife violence in German cities. German news agency dpa cited police sources as saying a knife was used in this attack but that has not been publicly confirmed
Police have so far declined to discuss a possible motive or the identity of the suspect.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt has reported that authorities urged people to leave central Solingen in the wake of the attack, and that one of the festival organisers, Philipp Müller, said on a stage that emergency workers were fighting for the lives of nine people.
Rolling news channel NTV showed a video of Müller asking the crowd not to “panic” and to be careful leaving the premises because the attacker was still at large.
The attack happened at a square in the city centre hosting the Festival of Diversity, which began on Friday and was supposed to run through to Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
Tens of thousands of visitors had been expected over the course of the festival.
Music acts were being performed at the time of the attack.
Updated
Local mayor Tim Kurzbach wrote on Facebook: “Tonight we are all in Solingen in shock, fright and great sadness. We all wanted to celebrate our city anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured.”
He said he was praying for all those who are still fighting for their lives and thanked emergency and security services for their work.
Opening summary
Police in the German city of Solingen have said three people have been killed and four seriously wounded in an an attack on festival-goers celebrating the city’s 650th anniversary.
An earlier report from German news agency dpa cited unidentified police sources as saying the weapon was believed to be a knife.
No one has been arrested. The Festival of Diversity began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday.
We will bring you the latest updates here.
