German chancellor Olaf Scholz has described Friday’s knife attack that left three dead and eight injured as “terrorism against us all”.
Mr Scholz promised “swift” new rules on weapons as well as measures to counter exploitation of the asylum system during a visit to the western city of Solingen. Three days earlier its 650th anniversary party ended in chaos with a knife-wielding man stabbing revellers.
After a 26-hour manhunt, the chief suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian-born asylum seeker identified only as Issa al H, turned himself in to police. He has been charged with three counts of murder as well as eight attempted murder and terrorism charges.
On Monday police said they had found traces of his DNA on a 15in knife, discovered in a bin near the scene of the attack, along with his bloody jacket containing a wallet with his ID and, in a drain, his mobile phone and a tablet.
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The man came to Germany in 2022 and appears to have dodged a deportation order back to Bulgaria, until then responsible for his case under EU asylum rules.
“We must also do everything possible so those people who do not have the right to remain here in Germany can be sent back,” said Mr Scholz. “We will look very closely at how we can further increase the numbers.”
He urged Germans to reject “Islamists who endanger the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews and Muslims”.
“We will not let this cohesion be destroyed, but will act with all vigour against them, that’s what we have to do now,” he added.
Islamic State has taken credit for the attack and has released a video of someone it claims is the Solingen attacker, wearing a head covering and what appears to be a tea towel covering almost his entire face.
The attack comes a week before key elections in two eastern states, where public safety and concerns over the asylum system have seen a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Its co-leader Alice Weidel demanded a five-year asylum moratorium on Monday while left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht, whose new electoral alliance is also surging in eastern polls, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “whoever allows uncontrolled migration will get uncontrollable violence”.
Mainstream opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz demanded a complete halt to arrivals from Syria and Afghanistan.
As pressure piles on the popular Scholz coalition, a government spokesman said setting aside asylum rules would violate German constitutional rules. Asylum applications are already sinking, he said, due to tighter border controls and new rules introduced last June.
This followed a similar fatal stabbing in the southwestern state of Mannheim, where an Afghan-born man injured six people, including a 29-year-old policeman who later died.
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