German police continue to hunt for man who killed three at festival in suspected terrorist attack

Main suspect still on the run as arrested 15-year-old boy accused of failing to report planned crime

German police are continuing their manhunt for the assailant who allegedly targeted his victims’ necks in a suspected terrorist attack at a festival in Solingen that left three dead and eight injured.
Officers said they had arrested a 15-year-old connected with the attack on Saturday morning but the teenager was reported to not be the assailant. The youth is accused of failing to report a planned crime.
Police have not ruled out terrorism as the motive behind the death of two men, aged 67 and 56, and a woman, aged 56. Five of the eight people wounded in the attack are in serious condition, police said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
Officers said they had reviewed social media footage of the bloody attack and that the killer could also face eight charges of attempted murder.
“After evaluating the initial images, we are assuming that it was a very targeted attack on the neck,” said Thorsten Fleiß, the police director at the press conference.
Markus Caspers, the chief public prosecutor, said investigators currently see no other motive than terrorism.
Mr Caspers said two witnesses had overheard a conversation between the youth, who was arrested on Saturday morning, and another person shortly before the stabbings.
It is unclear if the other person was the suspect but police acted after the witnesses reported what they had heard to investigators.
Police also said they were preparing a description of the attacker to be released to the public.
Officers have seized several knives and are investigating whether they are the murder weapon. The Bild newspaper reported the murder weapon had been found about 200 metres from where the attack took place.
Police said the situation was fluid and they were chasing “many leads”.
Dusseldorf Police said: “Various police measures, including searches at various locations, are being carried out in parallel. 
“Investigations and searches for possible further perpetrators and reasons for the offence are in full swing.”
Despite the killer still being at large, Markus Röhrl, the Wuppertal police chief, said he would not recommend the public locking themselves up at home.
“Everyone has to decide for themselves whether they go to festivities, whether they go to football matches, whether they use public transport. The consequence of saying no to all of this would be that they would have to lock themselves in their homes. I can’t recommend that to anyone. Quite the opposite.” he said.
“Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned. The police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large team,” police said earlier.
The incident occurred at about 9.40pm local time (8.40pm UK) on Friday when the man attacked multiple people with a knife, the police said, adding that the motive remained unclear.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said on X: “The perpetrator must be quickly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.” 
Nancy Faeser, the interior minister of Germany, said security authorities were doing everything they could to catch the perpetrator and investigate the background of 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 spokesman said. A second spokesman later would not 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.
Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, visited the scene early on Saturday. He told reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declined to speculate on the motive.