Three dead and eight injured after knife attack at festival in Germany

Three people were killed and four others are fighting for their lives after a knife attack at a festival in Germany.

Witnesses alerted police after a man randomly stabbed several passers-by in the western city of Solingen on Friday evening, the newspaper reports Picture reported.

According to the German news agency dpa, police said the perpetrator fled after the incident in a central square, the Fronhof, at around 9:45 p.m. local time (7:45 p.m. GMT).

German police said early Saturday that there were eight injured, five of them seriously. Police had previously reported four seriously injured people.

Police added that they believe the attack was carried out by a lone perpetrator.

At least one helicopter was seen in the air, the streets were full of police and emergency vehicles with blue lights flashing and several roads were closed.

The local newspaper Solingen daily newspaper quoted Celine Derikartz, the station's reporter who covered the festival, as saying that the party atmosphere had turned into a state of shock within minutes and that she had seen festival-goers crying.

One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked the visitors to “stay calm” and added: “Please keep your eyes open because unfortunately the perpetrator has not yet been caught.”

He said many people were injured by a “knife attacker.”

Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post: “All of us in Solingen are in shock this evening. We wanted to celebrate our city's birthday together and now we have deaths and injuries to mourn.”

He added: “It breaks my heart that there has been an attack on our city.”

The festival of diversity to mark the city's 650th anniversary began on Friday and was scheduled to last until Sunday. Several stages in central streets offered attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

Solingen has around 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the major cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Germany's highest security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, recently proposed tightening the gun laws. In future, carrying knives in public should only be permitted with a blade length of up to six centimeters. Currently, a length of 12 centimeters is permitted.