Police have arrested the person suspected of carrying out the deadly stabbing attack at a festival in the German city of Solingen. The attack, which occurred on Friday night, left three people dead and eight others injured, four of them seriously.

The victims, identified as a 56-year-old woman and two men, aged 56 and 67, were among those attending the Festival of Diversity, a celebration marking Solingen’s 650th anniversary. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately targeted his victims’ throats during the frenzied assault.

After a day-long manhunt, authorities detained the suspect on Saturday evening. Herbert Reul, the state internal affairs minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, told German public television network ARD, “We have been following a hot lead all day. The person we have been searching for has been detained a short while ago.” Reul added that police had collected “pieces of evidence” that led to the arrest.

The suspect is now in police custody and is being questioned.

Earlier on Saturday, a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of failing to report an imminent crime, but police later stated that there were no further suspicions against him.

Police also conducted an operation to access a building housing asylum seekers in Solingen as part of the investigation, leading to another arrest.

Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack, though they have not provided any evidence to support their claim. A security source told the IS-affiliated media arm Amaq Agency that the suspect was “a soldier from the Islamic State” and that the attack was carried out as “revenge against Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.

In Solingen, a calm sadness has descended over the city. Locals have been laying candles and flowers at the scene in tribute to the victims. Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach, expressed the city’s collective grief, stating, “Last night our hearts were torn apart… What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep.”

Chief of police operations, Thorsten Fleiss, said officers are continuing to gather evidence and conduct searches throughout the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Several knives have been found, but it is unclear whether any of them were used by the perpetrator.

The Festival of Diversity, which was scheduled to run throughout the weekend, has been cancelled. Churches in Solingen have opened their doors to offer space for prayer and emergency pastoral care for those affected by the tragedy.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visited the city on Saturday evening and assured residents that the government would do everything possible to support them. “We will not allow such an awful attack to divide our society,” she said.

Solingen, a city of about 160,000 residents, is located near Düsseldorf and the German border with the Netherlands. The investigation into the motives behind the attack is ongoing, with authorities stating that terrorist motives “cannot be ruled out.