German police name suspect who confessed to fatal knife attack that left three dead at diversity festival

German police have named a man who they say turned himself in and admitted to killing three people and injuring eight more during a knife attack at a festival.

The suspect, a Syrian man named only as Issa Al H. due to German privacy laws, turned himself in late on Saturday and admitted to the crime, Duesseldorf police and prosecutors said in a joint statement early on Sunday.

A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered the 26-year-old held pending further investigation and a possible indictment.

The attack in the city of Solingen, which was claimed by the Islamic State , sparked concern among some politicians who urged enhanced security, tighter curbs on weapons, stiffer punishment for violent crimes, and limits to immigration.

Prosecutors said "due to his radical Islamist convictions" he tried to kill as many people as possible that he considered to be non-believers, stabbing them repeatedly in the neck and upper body.

Friedrich Merz, a prominent politician who leads the opposition, centre-right CDU party, said the country should stop admitting further refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.

"It's enough!" he said in a letter on his website.

The suspect, who has been remanded in custody, came from a home for refugees in Solingen that was searched on Saturday, North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said.

Der Spiegel magazine, citing unidentified security sources, said the suspect moved to Germany in 2022 and sought asylum.

The Islamic State group described the man who carried out the attack as a "soldier of the Islamic State" in a statement on its Telegram account on Saturday.

It did not provide evidence for this assertion and details of the suspect's possible membership of the group were not immediately known.

Hendrik Wuest, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where Solingen is located, on Saturday described the attack as an act of terror.

Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has said there have been around a dozen Islamist-motivated attacks since 2000. One of the biggest was in 2016, when a Tunisian drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring dozens.

"The risk of jihadist-motivated acts of violence remains high. The Federal Republic of Germany remains a direct target of terrorist organizations," the BKA said in the report earlier this year.

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