German authorities have identified the man who confessed to a mass knife attack as a suspected member of the Islamic State group (IS).
Prosecutors named the man as Issa Al H, omitting his surname because of Germany’s privacy laws. The 26-year-old had given himself up and admitted to the stabbings, police said.
Three people were killed and another eight injured during Friday’s attack in the city of Solingen, during a festival to celebrate its 650-year history.
On Saturday, IS claimed that it was behind the attack.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had described it as an “horrific act”.
Those killed were two men aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman, officials said. Four of those wounded are still in a serious condition. All of the victims were stabbed in the neck, police said.
“The man we’ve really been looking for the whole day has just been taken into custody,” Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told ARD public TV late on Saturday.
Germany’s Bild and Spiegel news websites reported that the suspect surrendered himself in dirty blood-stained clothes.
Issa Al H is under investigation for murder, attempted murder and “strong suspicions of belonging to a terrorist group abroad”, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
He is a Syrian national, police and prosecutors confirmed, and German media reported that he arrived in the country in December 2022, after leaving war-torn Syria.
Bild reported that special task force (SEK) officers stormed a refugee centre that the suspect was associated with, detaining another person there.
Police also arrested a 15-year-old boy who is alleged to have known about the attack in advance.
The refugee centre is located about 300m (984ft) from Fronhof – Solingen’s central market square where the attack happened – according to Bild.
Solingen – a city famous for its steel industry – has about 160,000 inhabitants. It lies about 25km (15 miles) east of Düsseldorf.
The city’s authorities asked people to leave the Fronhof area after the attack at about 22:00 local time (21:00 BST) on Friday.
The planned three-day celebrations of the city anniversary – for which about 75,000 people had been expected – were cancelled.
Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach later said that “all of us in Solingen are in shock, horror and great sadness.
“It breaks my heart that an attack has happened in our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we’ve lost.
“I pray for all those still fighting for their lives. Also my greatest sympathy for all those who had to experience this, these images must have been horrific.”
People have been bringing flowers and candles to the site of the stabbing that shocked the entire country.
Players from Germany’s top Bundesliga football league wore black armbands during Saturday’s matches.
The attack may fuel an already fraught debate about immigration and asylum in Germany.
It comes ahead of key regional elections in the country’s east next week, where the far right is eyeing gains.
