German stabbing suspect held as IS claims attack

German police have arrested a suspect for Friday's knife rampage in the western city of Solingen, an attack that killed three people and injured eight others.

The three people who were stabbed to death were identified as two men aged 67 and 56 and a woman aged 56. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed at the victims' throats.

Early on Sunday, Dusseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor's office that the man arrested "stated that he was responsible for the attack". The statement said he had been arrested before, but gave no details.

"This person's involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated," the statement said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday, saying on Telegram that the attack was "in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere" and described the man who carried out the attack as a "soldier of the Islamic State".

Germany is Israel's second-largest weapons supplier and the German government is regarded as deeply biased toward Israel in the current conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Later police made a second arrest of a man at a refugee center close to the site of the attack.

The indiscriminate attack took place on Friday evening in the Fronhof market square in Solingen where live bands were playing during the Festival of Diversity to mark the city's 650th anniversary.

The Bild newspaper reported that the man arrested was covered in blood when he approached officers just after 11 pm and said, "I'm the one you are looking for." Bild and news magazine Spiegel reported that the suspect had given himself up to the officers.

He had reportedly been hiding in a backyard since the crime took place. Spiegel reported the suspect as a 26-year-old Syrian national who came to Germany in 2022 and applied for asylum in Bielefeld, about 150 kilometers northeast of Solingen.

"We are full of shock and grief," Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach told reporters.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the attack "a terrible event that has shocked me greatly". "We must not accept something like this in our society … The full force of the law must be applied here," he said.

In another development, French police said they have arrested a man suspected of starting fires and causing an explosion outside a synagogue early on Saturday in the southwest of the country.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said "the alleged perpetrator" has been detained.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that the attack was a "terrorist act".

Agencies contributed to this story.