The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a knife rampage that left three people dead and four seriously wounded in the western German city of Solingen late on Friday.
German prosecutors named the suspected as Issa Al H, a Syrian accused of being “a member of a terrorist organisation abroad”, with prosecutors saying he shared the “ideology of Islamic State”.
He has been charged with three counts of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm in eight cases.
The authorities said he had been arrested before and had previously applied for asylum in Germany.
Police arrested the suspected attacker early on Sunday as the manhunt threatened to enter a second day. The 26-year-old man turned himself into the authorities and said he was responsible for the stabbings, officials said.
Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said: “The person we have been searching for all day has been detained a short while ago.”
On Saturday police raided refugee housing in Solingen and arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of failing “to report an imminent crime” after two women said they had heard him and another person discussing the attack.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, promised harsh punishment for the assailant, who stabbed and slashed festival-goers in the throat at a free music concert in the city near Düsseldorf.
Isis claimed on its Telegram account that the killings were carried out by a “soldier of the Islamic State … in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”. It provided no evidence. The German newspapers Bild and Der Spiegel, citing unidentified security sources, said that the suspect was Syrian.
Earlier Hendrik Wüst, prime minister of the North Rhine-Westphalia state, called the attack an “act of terror” that “hit our country at the heart”. Scholz said it was “a terrible event that has shocked me greatly” and added: “The perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law.”
Police said they were unable to confirm or deny reports in the German media that a witness reported hearing the killer shout “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) during the attack.
The authorities believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker, who began knifing people at random at about 9.40pm at a free festival in the centre of the city, near Düsseldorf.
He aimed for the throats of his victims, police said.
Thorsten Fleiss, of Düsseldorf police, confirmed that two men, aged 67 and 56, and a woman aged 56 were killed in the attack. He said another eight people were injured, four of them severely.
Earlier on Saturday, members of the public began leaving flowers at the scene of the rampage, which unfolded on a central square known as the Fronhof.
DJ Topic, who was on stage performing at the time, said that he was asked to continue performing “to avoid mass panic”. The music producer and dance DJ, who is from Solingen, wrote on Instagram: “During my set, security personnel from the city came to me and asked me to please continue playing to avoid causing a mass panic, as there were already people killed by a stabbing attacker.
“So I kept playing, even though it was incredibly hard. After about ten to 15 minutes, the music was finally stopped, and the people were informed about the incident.”
He later went into hiding as police helicopters circled above. Topic added: “I still can’t believe it … this was supposed to be a free festival for everyone. Really close friends of mine were there with their small kids … My thoughts are with all the victims.”
The three-day “Festival of Diversity” was being held to mark the 650th anniversary of the founding of the city, which has about 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf. Around 80,000 visitors were expected to attend the event, which has now been cancelled.
Lars Breitzke, a witness, said he was standing in front of the stage when the attack began a few metres away from him. He was watching a band playing on stage when he noticed the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong.
“And then a person fell over just a metre away from me,” Breitzke said, adding that at first he thought the person was drunk. However, when he turned round, he saw others who had been injured lying on the ground, bleeding. Breitzke himself was unharmed.
Special forces units from across the region state headed to Solingen, road crossings were closed, and residents were told to stay at home.
Tim-Oliver Kurzbach, the city’s mayor, said: “We are all in shock, horror and great sadness in Solingen.
“We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have to mourn the deaths and injuries. It breaks my heart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost. I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives.”
Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, said security authorities were doing “everything they can” to determine the background to the incident, adding: “The brutal attack on the city festival in Solingen has shocked us deeply.”
Weeks ago, Faeser called for restrictions on weapons in public spaces, particularly in city centres and at railway stations where the security services say that the threat of knife violence is most common.
The debate flared in May after a police officer was killed and five others were injured in a knife attack at an anti-Islam protest in Mannheim, southwest Germany.
Knife crime is frequently connected with immigration by conservative and hard-right commentators in Germany. Björn Höcke, regional leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Thuringia, posted a video of emergency vehicles at the scene in Solingen and called for Germans to “free” themselves of “multiculturalisation”.
In March, Swiss police arrested a 15-year-old suspect in relation to the stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich. The force said the teen had expressed solidarity with the Islamic State group in a video and called himself a “soldier of the caliphate”.
European Union states reported six jihadist terrorist attacks in 2022, four of which were thwarted.
Islamic State is a much diminished force from a decade ago when it established a “caliphate” in the Middle East. But recent deadly attacks around the world, including in Russia, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran, have pointed to a revival.
On New Year’s Eve, German police arrested three people suspected of plotting to attack Cologne’s cathedral that night. The suspects had links to someone with alleged ties to Isis who was already in custody.
