German police arrest 26-year-old man over Solingen stabbing attack

German police have arrested a suspect in a stabbing rampage in the western city of Solingen that killed three people and injured eight.

The suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian man, turned himself in and admitted to the crime, Duesseldorf police and prosecutors said in a joint statement on Sunday.

„ Участието на това лице сега се проверява интензивно “, споделиха те.

German federal prosecutors identified the Syrian man as Issa Al H., omitting his family name because of German privacy laws, and said he was suspected of being a member of ISIL (ISIS).

The attack – claimed by ISIL, which is yet to be verified – took place on Friday evening at a festival to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary.

Late on Saturday, a state official speaking on German television announced the arrest of a man whom he said authorities had been searching for in the 24 hours since the attack.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Herbert Reul, told the ARD broadcaster that he was “a bit relieved ” after authorities spent the day following a “hot lead ” that led to the arrest.

Полицията прекара целия ден в търсене, като направи двама ареста, които евентуално не бяха причинителят, сподели Рул.

„ Истинският обвинен е този, който арестувахме преди малко “, сподели той. The individual is being questioned and evidence was seized, he said, adding that the man was affiliated with a home for refugees that had been searched earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, German federal prosecutors have taken over the case and are investigating whether the suspect was a member of ISIL, a spokesperson for the prosecutors said.

Earlier on Saturday, a prosecutor said another person had also been arrested: a 15-year-old suspected of failing to report a criminal act.

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

According to the newspapers Bild and Spiegel, the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had been granted a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing the war-torn country.

Той преди този момент не е бил прочут на службите за сигурност като „ екстремист “, оповестяват медиите.

В своя пик ИДИЛ контролираше огромни сектори от територия в Ирак и Сирия и извърши няколко смъртоносни офанзиви по целия свят. But the group faced a territorial defeat in 2017, and its brutal rule collapsed after it lost the areas it controlled to the Iraqi government and various parties in the Syrian civil war.

The group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks that it was not involved in, including a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.

Тримата души, убити в петък, са мъже на възраст 56 и 67 години и 56-годишна жена, споделиха чиновници.

The victims had “no known ties between them ”, Caspers told a news conference.

The attack occurred as thousands of people gathered in front of a stage for the first night of the three-day “Festival of Diversity ”, which has now been cancelled.

Солинген е град с към 150 000 души, ситуиран сред Дюселдорф и Кьолн.