Revealed: Identity of man accused of deadly Solingen festival stabbings
A 26-year-old man handed himself in to police over the rampage which claimed three lives
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German prosecutors have named the man suspected of carrying out a knife attack at a festival that killed three people and injured eight.
The Syrian national was named a Issa Al H, omitting his family name because of German privacy laws. The 26-year-old man had turned himself in to police late on Saturday during a major manhunt.
German federal prosecutors are investigating the suspect for links to Isis after the group claimed responsibility for Friday’s atrocity, which saw the knifeman aim for victim’s throats.
They are also investigating the man, who had applied for asylum in Germany, on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm in eight cases.
Prosecutors said “due to his radical Islamist convictions” he tried to kill as many people as possible that he considered to be non-believers, stabbing them repeatedly in the neck and upper body.
He was pictured in handcuffs being escorted to the Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Sunday.
The suspect came from a home for refugees in Solingen that was searched on Saturday, North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, said.
The rampage saw the knifeman aim for people’s necks after he began stabbing people at a Festival of Diversity to celebrate the German city’s 650th anniversary.
A woman, 56, and two men, aged 56 and 67, were killed and eight were injured after the onslaught in front of one of the festival stages in the city’s central square, the Fronhof. Four of the wounded are in a critical condition in hospital.
Isis claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday evening, saying the attacker was a “soldier of the Islamic State”, but the group provided no immediate evidence to support the claim.
The attack comes during a debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thuringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well.
So far two other people have been detained in connection with the mass stabbing. A man was arrested on Saturday after police raided a home for asylum seekers near the scene of the attack.
Earlier on Saturday a 15-year-old boy, who police allege knew the attack was going to take place before it happened, was also arrested.
At a press conference earlier on Saturday, police confirmed the deceased were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman – but they have not yet been publicly identified.
The tragedy unfolded shortly after 2130 local time (1930 GMT) on Friday when witnesses reported an attack on people in the Fronhof, Solingen’s central square.
Festival organiser Phillip Müller then asked people to leave “calmly”, informing festivalgoers that the perpetrator had not been caught.
It is not known whether the attacker was previously acquainted with the 15-year-old with whom he spoke before carrying out the knife attack.
The festival was supposed to run until Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics, but the remainder of the event was cancelled. Instead residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.
One sign placed amid candles and a teddy bear asked simply: “Why?” Grieving local Cord Boetther, 62, a merchant, said: “Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts.”
On Saturday the German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the perpetrator must be found quickly and face the “fullest extent of the law”.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was a “heinous act” adding that the attacker “needs to be brought to justice”.
“Let’s stand together – against hatred and violence,” he added.