Solingen stabbing at festival anniversary

On the evening of 23 August 2024, a man attacked people with a knife at the 'Festival of Diversity' (Festival der Vielfalt), a three-day event marking the 650th anniversary of the city of Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia. The assailant struck during a live music performance at the Fronhof square in the city centre, stabbing victims in the neck and upper body. Three people were killed, two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, and eight others were wounded, several seriously. The festival was immediately halted and later cancelled.

After a manhunt, a 26-year-old Syrian national, identified by authorities as Issa al H., turned himself in to police on 24 August. His asylum claim had been rejected and he had been slated for transfer to Bulgaria under the Dublin Regulation, but the deportation had not been carried out. The German Federal Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt) took over the case, and a federal judge issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of membership in the Islamic State, three counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder. The Islamic State, through its Amaq agency, claimed responsibility on 24 August and released a video describing the attacker as a 'soldier of the Islamic State.' In September 2025 he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

This was an act of jihadist terrorism, not foreign-state hybrid or sabotage activity. The German Federal Prosecutor investigated and prosecuted it as Islamist terrorism, the perpetrator was found to have acted on radical Islamist convictions in line with Islamic State ideology, and IS publicly claimed responsibility. There is no indication of direction or involvement by Russia or any other state. It marked the first IS-claimed attack on German soil since the 2016 Berlin truck attack and intensified domestic debate over asylum and deportation policy.