- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- Agha defies England as Pakistan post 515-8 in first Test
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Bangladesh's Yunus says no elections before reforms
- England strike twice as Pakistan reach 397-6 at lunch in first Test
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Kenya's deputy president faces impeachment vote
- N. Korean soldiers 'highly likely' killed in Ukraine: Seoul
- 'Appeals Centre' to referee EU social media disputes
- US Supreme Court to hear 'ghost guns' regulation case
- 'Small' oil leaks detected in Samoa after NZ navy shipwreck
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- At Istanbul church, blessed spring offers hope to Christians and Muslims
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- Myanmar to send rep to regional summit for first time in three years
- Prabowo set to lead bolder Indonesia on world stage
- Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
- Shanghai stocks pare early surge on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- New Japan PM to hold talks on ASEAN sidelines
- Record number of climbers chase 14-peak dream in Tibet
- Former South Korea clinic for US 'comfort women' to be demolished
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- Chiefs battle past Saints to stay unbeaten
RBGPF | -0.46% | 60.52 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.04% | 24.58 | $ | |
AZN | -0.21% | 76.71 | $ | |
SCS | -0.47% | 12.89 | $ | |
NGG | 0.18% | 65.6 | $ | |
GSK | -1.07% | 38.22 | $ | |
BTI | -0.09% | 35.17 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.1% | 24.815 | $ | |
RIO | -4.66% | 66.52 | $ | |
RELX | 0.8% | 46.41 | $ | |
BP | -3.59% | 31.99 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.15% | 6.87 | $ | |
BCC | 0.39% | 141.82 | $ | |
JRI | 0.11% | 13.195 | $ | |
BCE | -0.6% | 33.33 | $ | |
VOD | -0.42% | 9.649 | $ |
German police arrest suspected festival killer as IS claims attack
German police on Saturday arrested the suspected killer behind a knife rampage that left three people dead at a street festival, an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The unidentified assailant fled after striking in the western town of Solingen late on Friday, sparking a day-long manhunt.
"We have just arrested the true suspect," North Rhine-Westphalia region interior minister Herbert Reul said on public television late Saturday evening.
"The man we have been looking for all day has since a short time ago been in detention," he said, adding that police found evidence to convict him.
In a statement on Telegram, IS's Amaq propaganda arm said that "the perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State".
IS said the attack was carried out as "revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere", in an apparent reference to Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The claim has yet to be verified. German officials had earlier said that "a terrorist motive cannot be excluded" for the act.
A police spokesman earlier told AFP that officers had arrested a man in a raid at a hostel for asylum seekers, not far from the scene of Friday's attack.
Earlier on Saturday, a prosecutor said a first person was arrested: a 15-year-old suspected of failing to report a criminal act.
Witnesses had allegedly seen the teen discussing the attack just before it happened with a man who could be the killer, said Markus Caspers, prosecutor of Duesseldorf, just west of Solingen.
The people killed were men of 56 and 67 years of age and a 56-year-old woman, officials said.
"The victims were completely unknown with no known ties between them," Caspers told a press conference.
Four of the wounded were in a "serious" condition, officials said, revising down an earlier estimate of five.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the perpetrator "must be caught quickly and punished".
The attacker struck as thousands of people gathered for the first night of a "Festival of Diversity", part of a series of events to mark Solingen's 650th anniversary.
- High terror alert -
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks after a series of atrocities.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7, the risk of Islamist plots has "worsened considerably", Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said, warning that "the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high".
Jihadists have carried out several attacks in Germany in recent years, the deadliest being a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12.
A police officer was killed and five people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in the city of Mannheim in May, with an Islamist motive suspected.
Friday's killing started as thousands of people had gathered in front of a stage for the first night of the three-day festival.
Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt newspaper he was a few metres away from the attack, not far from the stage, and "understood from the expression on the singer's face that something was wrong".
"And then, a metre away from me, a person fell," said Breitzke, who at first thought it was someone who had had too much to drink.
When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.
Solingen mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said the whole city was in "shock, horror and great grief".
Faeser called for the country to "remain united" as she denounced "those who want to stir up hatred" during a visit to the site of the tragedy. "Let us not be divided", she said.
- Series of knifings -
Solingen is a city of some 150,000 people located between Duesseldorf and Cologne.
Up to 75,000 visitors had been expected to attend the "Festival of Diversity".
Scholz's centre-left coalition faces regional elections next week in the east of the country, where the far-right AfD is leading strongly in the polls.
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-2016 at the height of Europe's migrant crisis.
The influx was deeply divisive in Germany and fuelled the popularity of the AfD.
A.Malone--AMWN