Police have arrested a man in connection with a knife attack that left three people dead at a German festival, officials said.
A 56-year-old woman and two men, aged 56 and 67, were killed in the attack on Friday in the city of Solingen. Eight people were injured, four of them seriously, and “many others suffered psychological stress”.
Police said the gunman appeared to have aimed for the victims’ throats.
“We have been pursuing strong leads all day,” North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul told ARD broadcaster on Saturday evening.
“The individual we have been looking for all day has been arrested recently.”
Reul added that police have not only got “clues” but also gathered “evidence”.
The suspect is currently in police custody and is being questioned.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of “failing to report an imminent crime”, but police and prosecutors said at a press conference in the afternoon that no further charges were pending.
Police also made another arrest in connection with the attack.
They said the arrests were made after an operation to break into a building housing asylum seekers in Solingen as part of the investigation.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but did not provide any immediate evidence to back up its claim.
A security source told the Islamic State-affiliated media outlet Amaq Agency that the suspect was “an Islamic State fighter who carried out the attack in retaliation against Palestinians and other Muslims.”
Police operations chief Torsten Fries said officers had carried out various searches and investigations across North Rhine-Westphalia.
He said it was a “huge challenge” to piece together the available evidence and witness statements to put the whole picture together.
Fries added that police had found several knives but could not confirm whether the gunman had used one of them as a weapon in the attack.
Witnesses called police just after 9:30pm local time on Friday reporting several injuries at a community festival in the central square, Vronhof.
The festival of diversity, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was due to continue through the weekend. Several stages on the central street should offer attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
Topic, a DJ and music producer who performed at the festival, said he was on stage when the incident occurred but asked to continue performing “to avoid mass panic.”
The event has been cancelled.
Churches in Solingen have opened their doors to offer space for prayer and emergency pastoral care.
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser visited the city on Saturday evening and said the government would do everything it could to help its people.
Appearing alongside North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wust, she said “we will not tolerate such terrible attacks which divide our society.”
Wust described the attack as “a terrorist act against the security and freedom of our country.”
But Feser, the country’s security chief, did not classify it as a terrorist attack.
Solingen has a population of about 160,000 and is close to the city of Düsseldorf and the Dutch border.