A spokesperson for the Office of the German Federal Public Prosecutor told BBC it is considering charges “of murder, attempted murder, and membership of a foreign terrorist organization.”
During a “Festival of Diversity” on Friday in Solingen city, located in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, three people were stabbed to death and at least eight more were injured, including four critically, in the knife attack, Solingen police told reporters in the aftermath.
An Islamic State (ISIS) propaganda outlet claimed responsibility for the attack, but there was no previous publicized claim by the suspect of a link to the organization.
A 15-year-old was immediately arrested after the attack, but his involvement has remained unclear. After the incident was reported around 9:30 pm in Solingen, German authorities conducted a 24-hour manhunt for the primary suspect.
Federal, local, and North-Rhine Westphalia State police centered their overnight search at a center for refugees just outside Solingen city.
"The man we’ve really been looking for the whole day has just been taken into custody," State Interior Minister Herbert Reul said Saturday in an interview on broadcaster ARD.
He added that the person in custody is "whom we suspect to the highest degree,” while adding that at least two arrests have been made so far.
Duesseldorf police and the prosecutor’s office jointly announced the main suspect had “stated that he was responsible for the attack.”
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement added.
The Associated Press reported that the primary suspect was a 26-year-old man of Syrian nationality who had entered Germany in 2022, but was denied asylum in the nearby Bielefield city last year.
The German Press Agency (dpa) reported the suspect is “Issa Al H,” omitting his family name due to federal privacy law.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for justice while visiting Solingen.
"The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn those killed and worry about those injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery from all my heart," he told reporters on Saturday.
German magazine Der Spiegel reported the suspect is set to appear before the Federal Court of Justice in Karslruhe, the highest court of criminal and civil jurisdiction in Germany.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, promised Solingen the full support of the federal government.
“We will not allow for such an awful attack to divide our society,” she said at a press conference in the city.
The incident will likely heighten anti-immigration rhetoric in the country, where over 17 percent of the population has a direct “story of migration,” according to Germany’s office for statistics.
