Several people have been killed and others wounded in a knife attack at a festival in Germany, according to local reports.
A man stabbed passers-by at random in the western German city of Solingen on Friday night, the newspaper Bild reported.
It was not immediately clear how many casualties there were but, according to the paper, at least three people are dead and a number more were injured after the incident at a city festival at around 9.45 pm local time (7.45pm GMT).
The perpetrator is still at large, the news agency DPA reported, citing unidentified police sources as saying no arrests had yet been made.
The sources added that the weapon was believed to be a knife.
One of the festival organisers, Philipp Muller, said on a stage that emergency workers were fighting for the lives of nine people, according to local newspaper Solinger Tagblatt.
The paper also reported that authorities told people to leave downtown Solingen after the attack happened on a central square, the Fronhof.
Local police said they were not yet able to comment.
The “Festival of Diversity”, marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
Solingen has around 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
More follows on this breaking news story…