SOLINGEN, Germany (news agencies) — German police said early Sunday that a 26-year-old man turned himself in, claiming to be behind the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.
Düsseldorf police said in a statement that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack,” adding he had been arrested before.
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” police said.
On Saturday the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that as a “soldier of the Islamic State” he carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim couldn’t immediately be verified.
Officials had earlier said that they arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof.
The three people who died were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
Solingen, a city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary. It began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage. Hours later, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators looked for clues in the cordoned-off square, but the rest of the festival was canceled.
The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.
Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
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