At least three people were killed and several others seriously injured when a knife attacker went on a killing spree while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar.’
The attacker, who managed to flee the scene of crime, is reportedly of ‘Middle Eastern-origin,’ local media reports say. “The perpetrator, according to eyewitness statements is an Arab-looking man,” German newspaper Bild reported.
The Islamic State took responsibility for the deadly attack. “The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack in the western German city of Solingen that killed three people on Friday,” Reuters reported Saturday.
The deadly attack comes as largely Muslim demonstrations across the West have been calling for “globalizing the Intifada,” a reference to large-scale terrorist attacks against Jews and Israelis in late 1990s and in early 2000s.
Friday’s attacker attended a local mosque and screamed “Allahu Akbar” while stabbing his victims, the German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported Saturday:
According to a report by the Solingen police, obtained by the Welt am Sonntag: “One of the witness injured [in the attack] said that he knows the unidentified suspect from Solingen and he is also an attendee at a local mosque. One witness said that during the attack “Allahu Abkar” was shouted.
Despite mounting evidence, the German media and authorities are apparently in the dark about the true motives of the attacker. The Germen police “didn’t rule out’ that the Allahu Akbar-screaming attacker could have been an Islamic terrorist.
“The police don’t yet have any concrete information about [perpetrator’s] motive ,” German daily Das Handelsblatt noted Saturday. “After the fatal knife attack in Solingen, the public prosecutor’s office does not rule out a terrorist background.”
German state TV ARD reported the details of the attack:
Three people were killed in a knife attack at a town festival in Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia state, on late Friday evening. The crime occurred around 9:30 p.m. on the crowded market square in the city center. A stage was set up on it for the celebration of the 650th year of city’s founding. The crime occurred right in front of the stage.The attacker escaped due to the ensuing chao and panic. Emergency services are looking for him with a large contingent.Three visitors to the city festival were fatally wounded in the attack, eight others were injured, some seriously. Several of them are still in mortal danger.
While the culprit remains at large, the police have detained a 15-year-old boy who is believed to “have been in contact’ with the attacker, German news reports say.
Knife crimes have sky-rocketed in Germany since the surge of illegal immigration to the country in 2015. The data from “states showed that there were a total number of 26,113 knife attacks in Germany in 2023,” German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeutung reported Saturday.
[Excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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