Syrian asylum seeker held over festival stabbing spree

The man handed himself in to police over the assault during which he killed three people in the German city of Solingen

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN, ALEX CROFT

German prosecutors have named the man suspected of carrying out a knife attack at a festival that killed three people and injured eight. The Syrian national was named a Issa Al H, omitting his family name because of German privacy laws. The 26-year-old man had turned himself in to police late on Saturday during a major manhunt.

German federal prosecutors are investigating the suspect for links to Isis after the group claimed responsibility for Friday’s atrocity, which saw the knifeman aim for victim’s throats.

They are also investigating the man, who had applied for asylum in Germany, on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm in eight cases.

Prosecutors said “due to his radical Islamist convictions” he tried to kill as many people as possible that he considered to be non-believers, stabbing them repeatedly in the neck and upper body.

He was pictured in handcuffs being escorted to the Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The suspect came from a home for refugees in Solingen that was searched on Saturday, North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, said.