German police arrest Syrian man over Solingen stabbing
A suspect in German police custody following a stabbing rampage in the city of Solingen that killed three people and injured eight is a 26-year-old Syrian man, authorities said on Sunday (August 25) as they looked into his possible links with Islamic State. - REUTERS
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00:00A suspect in German custody after a stabbing rampage in the city of Züllingen arrived
00:07at the federal prosecutor's office in the city of Karlsruhe on Sunday.
00:11The attack occurred during a festival on Friday, killing three people and injuring eight.
00:16The suspect, who is a 26-year-old Syrian man, turned himself in and admitted to the crime,
00:21authorities said.
00:23Police said the case is under, quote, intensive investigation and that they are looking into
00:26his possible links with Islamic State.
00:30They searched garbage bins and backyards for more evidence at the market square where the
00:33fatal stabbing took place.
00:35Islamic State described the man taken into custody as a, quote, soldier of the group,
00:39but it did not provide any evidence for this assertion.
00:43The incident, which officials described as, quote, an act of terror, shocked the city
00:47of Züllingen.
00:48Mourners gathered for a church memorial and paid tribute to the victims.
00:54Herbert Ruhl, North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, said the suspect came from a home
00:58for refugees that was searched on Saturday.
01:01The suspect had moved to Germany late in 2022 and sought asylum, according to German media,
01:07citing unidentified security sources.
01:10Center-right politician Friedrich Merz urged the country to stop admitting further refugees
01:14from Syria and Afghanistan.
01:17Germany's Federal Criminal Police said there have been around a dozen Islamist-motivated
01:20attacks since 2000.
01:23One of the biggest was in 2016, when a Tunisian drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin,
01:28killing 12 and injuring dozens.