German authorities have identified the man who confessed to a mass knife attack as a suspected member of the Islamic State group (IS).
Prosecutors named the man as Issa Al H, omitting his surname because of Germany’s privacy laws. The 26-year-old had given himself up and admitted to the stabbings, police said.
Three people were killed and another eight injured during Friday’s attack in the city of Solingen, during a festival to celebrate its 650-year history.
On Saturday, IS claimed that it was behind the attack.
Those killed were two men aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman, officials said. Four of those wounded are still in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, police said.
Germany’s Bild and Spiegel news websites reported that the suspect surrendered himself in dirty blood-stained clothes.
Issa Al H is under investigation for murder, attempted murder and “strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group abroad”, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
He is a Syrian national, police and prosecutors confirmed, and German media reported that he arrived in the country in December 2022, after leaving war-torn Syria.
Bild reported that special task force (SEK) officers stormed a refugee centre that the suspect was associated with, detaining another person there.
Police also arrested a 15-year-old boy who is alleged to have known about the attack in advance.
Solingen – a city famous for its steel industry – has about 160,000 inhabitants. It lies about 25km (15 miles) east of Düsseldorf.
The city’s authorities asked people to leave the Fronhof area after the attack at about 22:00 local time (21:00 BST) on Friday.
The planned three-day celebrations of the city anniversary – for which about 75,000 people had been expected – were cancelled.
Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach later said that “all of us in Solingen are in shock, horror and great sadness.
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