Three people killed and eight injured after stabbing attack at festival in Germany

Three people have been killed and four others are fighting for their lives after a knife attack at a festival in Germany .

Witnesses alerted police after a man stabbed several passersby at random in the western city of Solingen on Friday night, the newspaper Bild reported.

Police said that the perpetrator was on the run, according to German news agency dpa, after the incident on a central square, the Fronhof, at around 2145 local time (1945 GMT).

German police said in a statement early on Saturday that eight were injured, five of them seriously. That is up from the four serious injuries the police reported earlier.

The force added that it is assumed there is a single perpetrator.

At least one helicopter was seen in the air, while the streets were filled with police and emergency vehicles with flashing blue lights and several roads were closed off.

The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt quoted Celine Derikartz, its reporter covering the festival, as saying that a party atmosphere had turned to shock within minutes and that she saw festival-goers weeping.

One of the festival organisers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage and asked attendees to “go calmly”, adding: “Please keep your eyes open because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn't been caught."

He said many people had been wounded by “a knifeman”.

Local mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a Facebook post: “This evening, we in Solingen are all in shock. We all wanted to celebrate our city's anniversary together and now have dead and wounded to lament.”

He added: “It breaks my heart that an attack on our city happened.”

The Festival of Diversity, marking the city's 650th anniversary, began on Friday and was supposed to run through until 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.

Germany's top security official, interior minister Nancy Faeser, recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6cm (nearly 2.4in) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12cm (4.7in), which is allowed now.