‘ISIS terrorist’ who ‘stabbed 3 people to death’ in Solingen knife rampage is charged as German Chancellor visits city

COPS have charged an alleged Islamic extremist after three people were stabbed to death at a festival in Germany.

Pictures published by local newspaper Bild show the suspect named as Issa Al H, who is accused of three counts of murder and eight counts of attempted murder.

Federal prosecutors believe the 26-year-old "shares the ideology" of jihadist monsters Islamic State (ISIS) and decided to "kill as many people as possible" due to those radical beliefs.

A woman, 56, and two men, 56 and 57, died after the attack at a celebration in Solingen.

Issa is accused of sneaking up to festival-goers from behind to strike them in the neck with his blade, prosecutors said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid Solingen an emotional visit on Monday and said: "I am angry. I am furious about this act.

"It must be punished quickly and severely.

"That was terrorism. Terrorism against all of us."

The chancellor also said that his anger was "directed at the Islamists who threaten and endanger peaceful coexistence."

He continued: "We will not allow this solidarity to be destroyed, but will take the strongest possible action against them and persecute them. That is what we must do now.

"We must do everything we can to ensure that something like this never happens in our country."

Flowers and candles have been lining the streets in tributes since the terror unfolded on Friday night.

Snaps from the scene showed the leader adding his own flower to the makeshift memorial before standing in silence.

Dramatic pictures of an arrest on Saturday night showed a man thought to be Issa flanked by armed cops as he was led away barefoot with goggles and headphones on.

Cops said they took the person suspected of the stabbing attack into custody after he turned himself in "covered in blood".

The knifeman approached officers shortly after 11pm, BILD reported.

He reportedly said: "I am the one you are looking for."

It comes as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the knife attack, saying it was in "revenge" for Muslims "in Palestine and everywhere".

The militant group said in a statement on its Telegram account that the attack was carried out by one of its members.

It is still unclear what relationship the attacker had with ISIS.

Issa had applied for asylum before the knife rampage on Friday.

The suspect arrived in Germany in December 2022 after fleeing war-torn Syria.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said he was not known to security services or considered dangerous.

Meanwhile, the German cops had also made a second arrest - a 15-year-old boy - while investigating the horror incident.

Investigators told a press conference that the boy had been arrested for failing to tell cops he was told of an imminent attack by the knifeman in the hours before the rampage.

Two witnesses claimed to have seen the teen speaking to the perpetrator.

They allegedly heard the unknown knifeman say to the 15-year-old: "Today I'm going to stab everyone."

STABBING RAMPAGE

The three-day “Festival of Diversity” was being held to mark the 650th anniversary of the founding of the city, which has about 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Around 80,000 visitors were expected to attend the event, which has now been cancelled.

But at 9.37 pm the knifeman launched his savage attack at random - aiming at his victims' necks as he went.

Eight more people were injured with four of them fighting for their lives after the suspect knifed the victims as they watched live music.

The suspect is said to have attacked the festivalgoers directly in front of the stage where live bands were playing.

The DJ who was playing his set while the terror unfolded revealed he was told to keep playing amid the anarchy by German authorities to avoid "mass panic".

In an Instagram post, DJ Topic claimed he had to push through an extra 10-15 minutes before music was stopped and the crowd was told what was going on.

He wrote: "Today I played at the 650-year anniversary of my hometown Solingen in Germany, and during my set, security personnel from the city came to me and asked me to please continue playing to avoid a mass panic.

"There were already people killed by a stabbing attacker. So I kept playing, even though it was incredibly hard.

"After about 10-15 minutes, the music was finally stopped, and the people were informed about the incident."