Syrian admits to stabbing three people at German festival

A Syrian man has turned himself in and confessed to stabbing three people and injuring several others at a festival in the western German city of Solingen on Friday, police said.

Two men, aged 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman died in the attack, which shocked Germany and prompted opposition parties to call for stricter rules for migrants.

The German public prosecutor's office accuses the 26-year-old of being a member of IS. The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack via its intelligence service Amaq. However, it did not provide any evidence for its claim.

In a statement, prosecutors said that due to his “radical Islamist beliefs, [the suspect] decided to kill as many people as possible at the Solingen town festival.”

The suspect turned himself in after a large manhunt. The Bild newspaper reported that the man was covered in blood when he approached the officers and said: “I am the one you are looking for.”

Authorities had previously searched a refugee shelter in connection with the incident. A 15-year-old boy was also arrested in connection with the incident.

During the manhunt, the residents of Solingen were asked to be cautious and alert while the perpetrator fled. For hours after the stabbing, authorities had difficulty identifying the attacker.

Police spokesman Thorsten Fleiß said the attacker had specifically targeted his victims' necks. “After evaluating the first images, we assume that it was a very targeted attack on the neck,” he said during a press conference.

In the attack on a central square in Solingen, about 25 kilometers east of Düsseldorf, several people were randomly stabbed on Friday evening.

On Friday, crowds gathered in the square in Solingen to celebrate the “Festival of Diversity,” a three-day event marking the 650th anniversary of the city's founding. Police say the attack occurred near the stage where a music act was performing.

Eyewitness Lars Breitzke said the attack happened just a few meters away from him. Breitzke told the Solinger Tageblatt that he noticed something was wrong from the singer's facial expression on stage. Then, he said, “a person fell down just a few meters away from me.”

Friday's attack came amid rising levels of knife crime in Germany, which recently prompted the Interior Ministry to propose tougher laws to combat the problem.

Opposition puts pressure on government over refugees

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attack as a “disturbing” and “terrible” event and will visit Solingen on Monday.

After it was confirmed that the suspect was a Syrian citizen, the chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, demanded that Germany should no longer accept refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.

“Enough is enough!” he wrote in a letter on his website.

German Vice Chancellor and Green Party politician Robert Habeck called for tougher laws against knife crime. “Nobody in Germany has to carry a knife in a public place,” Habeck wrote in a statement published on X (formerly Twitter).

Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), meanwhile blamed German migration policy alone for the problem. “Instead of racking our brains over the various models of knife bans, we must finally tackle the problem at its root. Migration must change immediately,” she wrote on X.

The attack is likely to further fuel anti-immigration sentiment in Germany, where the AfD is making electoral gains and is hoping for further success in upcoming elections in three eastern states next month.

This story has been updated with additional information.

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com