The festival event in Solingen

The police: Huge problem that we don't have good information

The police hunt for the fatal stabbing in Solingen, Germany, is made more difficult by the fact that the police have received few witness statements about the man's appearance.

- A huge problem. We don't have many details about the perpetrator yet, says police spokesman Alexander Kresta to Deutsche Welle.

The police union in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia urges the public to avoid speculation on social media. It is "forbidden", says trade union leader Michael Mertens to Tagesschau.

- The personal descriptions of the witnesses are partly contradictory. It's no wonder – people are shocked by what they've experienced. The police must now be able to carry out their work undisturbed.

A young man was arrested on Saturday morning, according to information given to the German newspaper Bild. But after questioning and initial investigations, he is not believed to be the perpetrator.

The police hunt is ongoing. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine, the police and the prosecutor's office are to give an update on the case at a press conference at 3 p.m.

.......................................

The minister: The police are doing everything to arrest the knifeman

The German police are doing everything in their power to arrest the perpetrator after the stabbing at the city festival in Solingen, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser writes on X. The perpetrator fled in the commotion that arose after stabbing several people in the audience.

"The brutal attack on the festival in Solingen deeply shocked us," she writes.

Three people were killed and eight injured in the attack, which is being investigated as a targeted attack.

.......................................

Big police hunt in Germany – suspect fled in the commotion

A large police hunt is underway in Germany after the stabbing at the city festival in Solingen, the police in Düsseldorf wrote in a press release on Saturday morning. Witnesses are now being asked to send images and video footage to the police.

"According to current information, three people were killed and eight were injured in the attack, five of them seriously," writes the police, who thus increase the number of injured from four.

The perpetrator managed to escape the knife attack in the commotion that arose after yesterday's attack. The incident must have happened right at the scene and was first investigated as some kind of violent incident, but it is now being investigated as a targeted attack, writes Der Spiegel.

The tabloid Bild describes it as the police investigating a "terrorist attack", but no other major German newspaper calls it that.

- The perpetrator stabbed people at random with a knife. Therefore, we are currently assuming that it is an attack, says police chief Sascha Kresta.