Scholz vows to act on weapons and deportations after Solingen attack

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has promised tougher weapons laws and swifter enforcement of deportation rules in response to the deadly mass stabbing in the western city of Solingen, as the far right seized on public outrage in the run-up to key state elections.

- Deborah Cole

Scholz laid a single white rose yesterday at the scene of Friday night's rampage, claimed by the Islamic State group, in which a Syrian asylum seeker is alleged to have killed three people and injured eight others attending a street festival marking the city's 650th anniversary.

After meeting regional officials and listening to what he called the "very moving accounts" of emergency services workers who tended to the victims, Scholz told reporters he was "furious" about the murders but would not let them tear apart German society.

"This was terrorism - terrorism against us all, threatening all our lives, our coexistence, our way of life," said Scholz, a Social Democrat. "That is also what the people who plan and carry out such attacks always intend and it is something we will never accept."