"I'm the one you're looking for", the man is said to have said, according to police sources, writes the newspaper Rheinische Post, when he approached a police car and surrendered on Saturday evening.
The Minister of the Interior of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, confirms that the man has been arrested and is believed to be the perpetrator.
Is 26
According to Der Spiegel, the man is a 26-year-old Syrian who came to Germany in December 2022 and applied for asylum. He has not been known from extreme Islamist circles.
The 26-year-old is the third person the police have taken into custody, questioned or arrested. However, the two previous individuals the police were interested in, a 15-year-old and another man, are not believed to have been perpetrators, and it is unclear what connection they are suspected to have had to the attack.
Four people have life-threatening injuries and two are seriously injured after the knife attack that occurred during the city festival in Solingen, a few miles east of Düsseldorf on Friday evening. Incident commander Thorsten Fleiss stated at a press conference on Saturday that the victims are a 56-year-old man, a 67-year-old man, and a 56-year-old woman.
IS takes responsibility
IS, the Islamic State, went out via the app Telegram on Saturday evening and took responsibility for the act, which according to the terrorist group was a "revenge" for Muslims "in Palestine and everywhere". It is, according to the news agency DPA, the first time since the attack at the Christmas market in Berlin, when 13 people were killed, that IS has taken responsibility for an act in Germany.
