SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — The The Islamic State militant group on Saturday claimed responsibility for a knife attack that killed three people and injured eight others at a packed festival marking the 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 attacks on Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

The IS claim could not be immediately verified. It provided no evidence for its claims.

Police later arrested a suspect, the interior minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia 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’ve been looking for all day was taken into custody a short time ago.”

He was interrogated, Reul said.

Reul said police not only had “clues” but were also collecting “evidence”.

Officials said earlier that a 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of knowing about the planned attack and failing to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they heard the boy and an unknown person before the attack talking about intentions consistent with the bloodshed, officials said.

Before Reul’s announcement, Markus Caspers, a senior prosecutor from the prosecutor’s office’s counterterrorism division, said at a news conference Saturday that authorities could not yet comment on the attacker’s motive.

“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, although he did not provide further details.

The three people who died were two men, ages 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

“We are seeing the first signs of a new wave of terrorist attacks,” said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London. IS is “trying to take advantage of the huge mobilization that resulted from Hamas’ terrorist offensive on October 7, 2023, even though strictly speaking it had nothing to do with it,” he said.

“The type of attack we saw in Solingen is exactly the type of attack that (IS) is trying to inspire. It urges people across the internet to attack “unbelievers” using simple methods. like cars and knives. In this way, it tries to create the impression that (the Islamic State group) is everywhere and can strike at any time, Neumann told the Associated Press.

Thorsten Fleiss, who led police operations on Friday night, said officers were conducting searches and investigations throughout the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He said police had found several knives, but added he could not confirm whether any of them were used in the attack.

Police warned people to be vigilant even as well-wishers began leaving flowers at the scene. Authorities established an online portal where witnesses could upload footage and any other information relevant to the attack.

Churches in Solingen opened their doors to offer a place for prayer and emergency pastoral care.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visited the town on Saturday night and said the government would do everything to support the people of Solingen.

“We will not allow such a terrible attack to divide our society,” she said, appearing alongside Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Reul.

Wüst described the attack as “an act of terror against the security and freedom of this country.” But Faeser, the country’s top security official, had not classified it as a “terrorist attack”.

People alerted the police just after 9.30pm on Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife in the city’s central square, Fronhof.

Solingen, a town of about 160,000 inhabitants near the larger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, held a “Diversity Festival” to mark its 650th anniversary. It started on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages on downtown streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.

The attack took place in the crowd in front of a stage. Hours later, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators searched the cordoned-off square for clues, but the rest of the festival was cancelled.

“Last night our hearts were torn apart. We in Solingen are full of horror and sadness. What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep,” Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach told reporters on Saturday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the perpetrator must be punished with the full force of the law.

“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me a lot. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I just spoke with the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” Scholz said on Saturday. social media platform X.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also spoke with the mayor on Saturday morning.

“The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn the dead and worry about the injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery with all my heart,” Steinmeier said in a statement.

A decade after The Islamic State militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria, the extremists no longer control any country, have lost many prominent leaders and are mostly out of the world’s news headlines.

Nevertheless, the group continues to recruit members and take responsibility for deadly attacks around the worldincluding fatal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carrying out attacks against government forces in both countries as well as US-backed Syrian fighters.

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Liechtenstein reported from Vienna.