German police have detained a suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three and wounded eight on Friday in the western German city of Solingen.
The attack occurred on the first evening of a three-day “festival of diversity” marking the town’s 650-year anniversary.
The attack was claimed by Islamic State.
A 26-year-old Syrian national gave himself up to police on Saturday.
The anti-immigration AfD party is expected to make big gains at state polls, amid mounting concern over migration and crime.
The German General Federal Prosecutor has spearheaded a campaign to detain and prosecute ISIS members and supporters who have streamed into Germany since 2015.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor said it had charged an Afghan national for being a member of the group and another for supporting it.
ISIS posted on Telegram that the attack on a “Christian gathering” had been executed by a “soldier of the Islamic State, and he carried it out in revenge for the Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere.”
Solingen, which has a large foreign community, is mainly known for its knife industry and officially calls itself the “city of blades”. AfD is leading in polls ahead of a state election on 1 September in the eastern state of Thuringia and is tied with the conservative Christian Democratic Union in Saxony. The AfD is also leading narrowly in Brandenburg ahead of an election on 22 September.
An AfD state victory would be its first win in a German state election since World War II.
[Photo: AllSides https://www.allsides.com/news/]