SOLINGEN, GERMANY -- An attacker with a knife killed three people and seriously wounded at least five late on Friday at a festival in the western German city of Solingen, authorities said.
Witnesses alerted police shortly after 9.30 p.m. to an unknown perpetrator having wounded several people indiscriminately with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said the attacker was on the run, and that they so far had only very little information on the man.
They said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker.
One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked festivalgoers to 鈥済o calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn't been caught.鈥�
He said many people had been wounded by 鈥渁 knifeman.鈥�
At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while many police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights were on the road and several streets were closed off.
Police put the number of seriously injured at five. The region's top security official, Herbert Reul, gave a figure of six as he visited the scene in the early hours of Saturday.
鈥淣one of us knows why鈥� the attack took place, said Reul, who is the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.
鈥淚 can't say anything about the motive now鈥� and it isn't clear who the assailant was, he also said and added that the attacker had left the scene 鈥渞elatively quickly.鈥�
Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post that 鈥渢his evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city鈥檚 anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.鈥�
鈥淚t breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened,鈥� he added.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter covering the festival, as saying that 鈥渢he atmosphere is spooky.鈥� She said a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and she saw festivalgoers weeping.
The 鈥淔estival of Diversity,鈥� marking the city鈥檚 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The city cancelled the rest of the festival after the attack.
Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
There has been concern about an increase in knife violence in Germany recently.
In May, a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant on members of a group that describes itself as opposing 鈥減olitical Islam鈥� left a police officer dead.
Germany's top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, this month proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimetres (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimetres (4.7 inches) which is allowed now.
Moulson reported from Berlin.
