Solingen stabbing: Three killed in attack at Germany festival, Solingen stabbing: Three killed in attack at Germany festival 

 Police say search is on for unknown assailant after striking festival goers, leaving eight injured.

German police hunt for suspect after mass stabbing at festival kills three POLICE IN GERMANY are searching for an unknown suspect behind a mass stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen in which three people were killed. Eight people were injured, five of them seriously, police said on Saturday as thousands had gathered at a central square for celebrations to mark Solingen's 650th anniversary. The dead included one woman and two men.

Police in the neighboring city of Dusseldorf said in a statement shortly before 0400 GMT that "Both victims and witnesses were currently being questioned," adding that "a large contingent" of officers was searching for the perpetrator.

One man attacked several people with a knife at around 2140 GMT on Friday, police said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Saturday that the perpetrator is to be caught fast and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

The attack happened at the Festival of Diversity in Solingen. It is located in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which is Germany's most populous and borders the Netherlands.

Events had been scheduled to go forward throughout the weekend in several stages along main streets, with live music, cabaret, and acrobatics, among other attractions. Solingen has about 160,000 citizens and is placed close to the more comprehensive metropolitan areas of Cologne and Dusseldorf.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated that "the brutal assault on the city festival in Solingen deeply shocked us.".

"Our security authorities at all levels are working hard to apprehend the perpetrator" of the "horrific act," she said Saturday in a statement on social media platform X.

Police on Saturday warned residents who observe anything suspicious not to act on their own initiative but to call the police emergency number.

We currently have no clues as to his whereabouts," said a police spokesman. There was also no description of the suspect, Germany's DPA news agency reported.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Herbert Reul, visited the scene early on Saturday, telling reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declining to speculate on the motive.

Fatal stabbings and shootings are comparatively unusual in Germany. In May, a knife attack at a far-right rally in the city of Mannheim killed a police officer and left five people injured.

Recently, Faeser recommended tightening the weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters to be carried in public instead of the currently legal length of 12 centimeters.

Witness Lars Breitzke told local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt: "I was a few meters away from the attack, not far from the festival stage, and saw from the expression on the face of the singer, that something was wrong.".

"And then a meter away from me a person fell," said Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had too much to drink.

He turned around to see other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.

"It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost, " Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said in a statement. "I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives.

"This evening, we all are faced with shock, horror, and great sadness in Solingen. We all wanted to celebrate our city's anniversary together, and now we have to mourn dead

Special police forces are standing: a scene of the mass stabbing in Solingen, Germany. A manhunt is underway after the unidentified suspect Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters