Germany: Scholz Pledges Crack Down On Illegal Immigration, Strict Arms Law After Syrian Man Goes On Knife Rampage

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives to place flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims at the site of a knife attack in Solingen, western Germany. (Image: AFP)

The Syrian man stabbed three people to death during a festival at the city of Solingen in western Germany.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday pledged to tighten Germany’s weapons laws and crack down on illegal immigration after a Syrian man allegedly went on a deadly knife rampage in the city of Solingen.

“We will now have to tighten up the weapons regulations… in particular with regard to the use of knives,” Scholz said on a visit to Solingen, adding that “I’m sure this will happen very quickly”.

“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and must not stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported,” he added.

He also said the knife attack at the festival that killed three people was an act of “terrorism against us all”.

Friday’s attack, allegedly carried out by a 26-year-old Syrian man with links to the Islamic State (IS) group, “threatens the way we live together”, Scholz said on a visit to the city.

The attacker struck in front of one of the stages during a concert by the group Suzan Koecher’s Suprafon, aiming for the victims’ necks, according to police. He then fled the scene.

A witness told the local daily Solinger Tageblatt that he was just a few metres away and “understood from the expression on the singer’s face that something was wrong”.

“And then, a metre away from me, a person fell,” the witness, Lars Breitzke, said.

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

Two men aged 56 and 67 and a 56-year-old woman were killed in the attack and eight people were wounded, four of them seriously.

Islamic State claim

On Saturday evening, the IS group said in a statement that one of its members had carried out the attack in “revenge” for Muslims “in Palestine and everywhere”.

“The perpetrator of the attack on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State,” the statement from the jihadists’ Amaq news agency said on the Telegram messaging app.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors in Germany have taken over the investigation.

Suspect confesses

Police said on Sunday that a 26-year-old Syrian had turned himself in to the authorities and confessed to carrying out the attack.

The suspect, named as Issa Al H., managed to escape amid the panic and threw his knife into a bin, according to details published by the Bild daily that have not been confirmed by investigators.

Police have seized the knife as well as the suspect’s “blood-stained” jacket, which still contained his wallet and identity papers, Bild reported.

After the attack, the suspect reportedly took cover in a courtyard around the corner from the home for refugees where he had been living in the city centre.

He was found there during a police patrol in the pouring rain just before midnight on Saturday, Bild said.

Issa Al H. arrived in Germany in December 2022 and had a protected immigration status often given to those fleeing war-torn Syria, according to Bild and other news outlets.

He was meant to have been deported to Bulgaria, where he had first arrived in the European Union, but the operation failed after he went missing.

He was not known to the security services as an extremist considered dangerous.

Police also arrested a 15-year-old after witnesses allegedly saw him discussing the attack with a man who could have been the perpetrator shortly before it happened.