GERMAN POLICE HAVE detained a suspect in the Solingen knife attack that killed three people on Friday evening. 

In a statement, police said the suspect was a 26-year-old Syrian who had “given himself up to authorities in charge of the investigation and declared himself responsible for the attack”.

Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed while eight others were injured in the attack which took place at a street festival celebrating the city’s 650th anniversary.

Four of the wounded remain in serious conditions. According to police all of the victims were stabbed in the neck.

The suspect was arrested in a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers on Saturday, not far from the scene of the attack.

North Rhine-Westphalia state interior minister Herbert Reul said police had evidence linking the man to the knife attacks.

It comes after the Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. 

The group said Saturday on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”.

The IS claim could not immediately be verified. No evidence for the group’s assertions was provided.

Earlier on Saturday, a 15-year-old boy was arrested. Police said he was suspected of knowing about the planned attack and failing to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker.

They said they had listened to a conversation between the boy and an unknown person before the attack, speaking about intentions that corresponded to the events that followed.

“We are seeing the first signs of a new wave of terrorist attacks,” said Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King’s College in London.

IS “is trying to capitalise on the huge mobilisation resulting from Hamas’ terror offensive on October 7 2023, even though strictly speaking it had nothing to do with it,” he said.

The Festival of Diversity, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage. Hours after the attack, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators looked for clues in the cordoned-off square.

The rest of the festival was cancelled.

Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X on Saturday: “The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I have just spoken to Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families.”

A decade after the Islamic State militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria, the extremists no longer control any land, have lost many prominent leaders and are mostly out of the world news headlines.

Still, the group continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that left scores dead.

Sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks against government forces in both countries as well as US-backed Syrian fighters.

Contains reporting from Press Association and AFP.