ISIS claimed responsibility for a knife attack in Solingen, Germany that killed three people and wounded eight others at a crowded festival marking the city's 650th anniversary.
The group said Saturday on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
The ISIS claim couldn't immediately be verified. No evidence for the group's assertions was provided.
Police later detained a suspect, the state internal affairs minister of North Rhein Westphalia said early Sunday.
“We have been following a hot lead all day,” Herbert Reul told Tagesschau, the news program of the German public television network ARD. “The person we have been searching for all day has been detained a short while ago,” he said.
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He was being questioned, Reul said
Reul said that police not only have “clues” but also have collected “pieces of evidence.”
Officials earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday. Police said he was suspected of knowing about the planned attack and failing to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker.
Markus Caspers, senior public prosecutor from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutor's office, told a news conference earlier Saturday that authorities have not found the perpetrator.
“So far we have not been able to identify a motive, but looking at the overall circumstances, we cannot rule out” the possibility of terrorism, Caspers said, though he did not offer further details.
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The three people who died were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims' throats.
