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Berlin
Three people were killed and at least five others injured in a knife attack at a festival in western Germany on Friday (Aug 23), the news agency Associated Press reported citing authorities. The attack happened in the city of Solingen where the "Festival of Diversity" was being celebrated.
Shortly after 9.30 pm local time Friday, witnesses alerted police about an unknown attacker having wounded several people indiscriminately with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof.
Police said the perpetrator was on the run, and they had only very little information on the man so far.
'Stabbings carried out by lone attacker'
The police believe that the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker. The Associated Press report said that at least one helicopter was seen in the air, many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Though police said the total number of people injured was five, North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul said that six were injured.
Paying a visit to the crime scene in the early hours of Saturday, Interior Minister Reul said it was not yet known why the attack took place. Reul added that the attacker left the scene “relatively quickly.”
One of the festival organisers appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.”
Festival cancelled
The Festival of Diversity, which marked Solingen's 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday. However, the festival was cancelled following the attack.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
In a post on Facebook, Solingen's Mayor Tim Kurzbach said, "This evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)