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Eight were injured, five of them seriously, the police said in a
statement early on Saturday. That was up from the four serious
injuries the police reported earlier.
"Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned. The
police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large
team," police said.
The incident occurred around 9:40 p.m. (1940 GMT) on Friday,
when the man attacked multiple people with a knife, the police
said, adding that the motive remained unclear.
"The perpetrator must be quickly caught and punished to the
fullest extent of the law," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said
in a post on X.
Germany's interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said security
authorities were doing everything they could to catch the person
and investigate the background to the attack.
The attack occurred at the Fronhof, a market square in Solingen
where live bands were playing. It was during a festival marking
the 650th anniversary of the city in the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands.
The German musician who goes by the name Topic said he was
playing on a nearby stage when the incident occurred. He was
told about what happened but was asked to continue "to avoid
causing a mass panic attack", he posted on Instagram.
He was eventually told to stop, and "since the attacker was
still on the run, we hid in a nearby store while police
helicopters circled above us," Topic wrote.
Authorities cancelled the remainder of the weekend festival.
The perpetrator aimed specifically for peoples' throats, one
police spokesperson said. A second spokesperson later wouldn't
confirm or deny that detail, and pointed to a news conference
scheduled for the afternoon.
Fatal stabbings and shootings are relatively uncommon in
Germany. The government said earlier this month it wanted to
toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by
reducing the maximum length allowed.
In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in
Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration. A
stabbing attack on a train in 2021 injured several.
North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul,
visited the scene early on Saturday. He told reporters it was a
targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the
motive.
(Reporting by Tom SimsEditing by William Mallard, Sam Holmes and
Frances Kerry, Kirsten Donovan)
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