Islamic State Group Claims Responsibility For Knife Attack That Killed 3 In Germany

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — The Islamic State militant group on Saturday claimed responsibility for a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight more at a crowded festival marking this city’s 650th anniversary.

The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that as a “soldier of the Islamic State” he carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

The IS claim couldn’t immediately be verified. It provided no evidence for its assertions.

Police later detained a suspect, the internal affairs minister of North Rhein Westphalia state said early Sunday.

“We have been following a hot lead all day,” Herbert Reul told “Tagesschau,” the news program of the German public television network ARD. “The person we have been searching for all day has been detained a short while ago.”

He was being questioned, Reul said.

Reul said police not only had “clues” but also collected “pieces of evidence.”

Officials earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.

Before the Reul announcement, Markus Caspers, senior public prosecutor from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutors office, said at a news conference Saturday that authorities could not yet speak on the attacker’s motivation.

“So far we have not been able to identify a motive, but looking at the overall circumstances, we cannot rule out” the possibility of terrorism, Caspers said, though he did not