By Tom Sims and Rene Wagner
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German police mentioned they had been holding a 26-year-old Syrian man in custody on Sunday after a knife assault within the metropolis of Solingen by which three individuals had been killed and eight injured, including that they had been trying into the suspect’s potential hyperlinks with Islamic State.
The incident, together with the militant group’s declare of accountability, sparked concern amongst some politicians who urged enhanced safety, tighter curbs on weapons, stiffer punishment for violent crimes, and limits to immigration.
The assault occurred throughout a pageant on Friday night in a market sq. the place reside bands had been enjoying to have fun Solingen’s 650-year historical past. Mourners made a makeshift memorial close to the scene.
The suspect turned himself in late on Saturday and admitted to the crime, Duesseldorf police and prosecutors mentioned in a joint assertion early on Sunday.
German federal prosecutors recognized the Syrian man as Issa Al H., omitting his household title due to German privateness legal guidelines, and mentioned he was suspected of being a member of Islamic State.
Prosecutors mentioned “due to his radical Islamist convictions” he tried to kill as many individuals as potential that he thought of to be non-believers, stabbing them repeatedly within the neck and higher physique.
Friedrich Merz, a distinguished politician who leads the opposition, centre-right CDU social gathering, mentioned the nation ought to cease admitting additional refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.
“It’s enough!” he mentioned in a letter on his web site.
The suspect got here from a house for refugees in Solingen that was searched on Saturday, North Rhine-Westphalia’s inside minister, Herbert Reul, mentioned.
Der Spiegel journal, citing unidentified safety sources, mentioned the suspect had moved to Germany late in 2022 and sought asylum.
The Islamic State group described the person who carried out the assault as a “soldier of the Islamic State” in a press release on its Telegram account on Saturday.
On Sunday, the group posted two clips on its Telegram account of what it mentioned was the attacker. The primary purportedly confirmed the masked man pledging allegiance to the Islamic State chief, and the second, by which his face was blurred, allegedly confirmed him talking moments earlier than the assault.
Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia the place Solingen is positioned, on Saturday described the assault as an act of terror.
Germany’s Federal Legal Police Workplace (BKA) has mentioned there have been round a dozen Islamist-motivated assaults since 2000. One of many greatest was in 2016, when a Tunisian drove a truck right into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring dozens.
“The risk of jihadist-motivated acts of violence remains high. The Federal Republic of Germany remains a direct target of terrorist organizations,” the BKA mentioned within the report earlier this 12 months.