Sawt Falasteen - Three dead in knife attack on German festival

Police closed off the centre of Solingen, while victims and witnesses were being questioned about the attack on Friday night, according to a statement which said five of the injured were in "serious" condition.

Special forces were among security personnel in the city centre while a helicopter flew overhead, according to an AFP journalist.

"An unidentified man attacked several people with a knife around 9.40 pm (1940 GMT)," said the statement released by police in the nearby city of Duesseldorf.

"Police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large contingent," it added, encouraging witnesses to submit photos, videos and any other information about the attack.

- 'A person fell' -

According to the Bild daily, the perpetrator stabbed festival-goers "indiscriminately with a knife".

Witness Lars Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt newspaper he was a few metres from the attack, not far from the festival 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 too much to drink.

When he turned around, he saw other people lying on the ground amid pools of blood.

The festival was part of a series of events to celebrate the city's 650th birthday.

In a statement posted online, Tim-Oliver Kurzbach, mayor of Solingen, said the whole city was in "shock, horror and great grief".

"We all wanted to celebrate our town's anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured," he said.

- 'Brutal and senseless' -

Kurzbach thanked the emergency services for their work and expressed sympathy with those who had witnessed the attack.

"It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost. I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives," he said.

Hendrik Wuest, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, also expressed his "shock and grief" in a post on social media platform X.

"An act of the most brutal and senseless violence has struck at the heart of our state," he said.

"The whole of North Rhine-Westphalia stands by the people of Solingen, especially the victims and their families."

Solingen is a city of some 150,000 people located between Duesseldorf and Cologne.

People had gathered in the town on Friday evening for the first day of a three-day "Festival of Diversity".

It was set to feature music, street theatre, variety shows and comedians in the city centre and several other areas, it said.

Up to 75,000 visitors had been expected to attend over the three days.

- Festival cancelled -

The Solinger Tageblatt said one of the festival organisers went on stage to announce it was cancelled.

Thousands of people cleared the area, the paper reported, with a journalist at the scene describing the atmosphere as "ghostly".

"People left the scene in shock, but calmly," Philipp Mueller, one of the organisers, told the newspaper.

Mueller said the rest of the festival would also be cancelled.

"We've just informed all the artists and stand operators," he said.

Germany has seen a series of knife attacks over the past 12 months, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser promising to crack down on knife crime.

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.

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST