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Three people were killed at a festival in Germany and several others were injured by a knife-wielding maniac on Friday night, authorities said.
The attacker — described by festival organizers as a “knifeman” — was still on the run hours after unleashing the bloodshed.
The horror unfolded around 9:30 p.m. in a central square of the “Festival of Diversity,” a three-day event marking the 650th anniversary of the founding of Solingen.
The attack occurred close to the stage while a musical act was performing, according to police.
One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked attendees to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.”
At least three people were killed in the stabbing, according to officials.
As many as six others were seriously injured, the region’s top security official, Herbert Reul, said early Saturday.
Authorities believe the mass attack was carried out by a lone assailant, but have little information on the suspect.
“None of us knows why” the attack took place, said Reul, who is the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.
“I can’t say anything about the motive now” and it isn’t clear who the assailant was, he also said and added that the attacker had left the scene “relatively quickly.”
The streets surrounding the festival were shut down Friday into Saturday.
Organizers canceled the remaining two-day lineup of festivities.
“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,” Mayor Tim Kurzbach said on Facebook.
“It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,” he added.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
The brutal knife attack comes just one week after another incident unfolded at an unrelated festival.
Nearly 300 miles west, a ferris wheel full of riders erupted in flames during the Highfield Festival in the eastern city of Leipzig.
Up to 30 people were injured in the blaze, with some victims sustaining serious burns and others suffering smoke inhalation.
With Post wires
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