Three people were killed and five seriously injured in a knife attack in the western German city of Solingen on Friday.

Police said they had launched a "major operation to find the suspect, who escaped in the turmoil and panic that initially spread after the crime."

According to media reports, a man stabbed passers-by at random with a knife at a festival celebrating the city's 650th anniversary.

The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt reported that three people had been killed and others were in a life-threatening situation. 

In the wake of the attack, the city of Solingen has completely canceled its 650th anniversary celebrations. 

The events scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday have also been canceled, the city announced Saturday night.

Police declare a manhunt

The incident took place at Fronhof, a marketplace in the center of the city, where a stage had been set up for live music. Police were alerted shortly after 9:30 p.m. (1930 GMT).

Authorities asked residents to leave the city center following the attack. Müller took to the stage and told festivalgoers to "go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn't been caught."

The police have issued a major alert and declared a manhunt. Armed officers were on the scene and had cordoned off large areas of the city. Barriers were also set up across the city.

According to the German daily Bild, heavily armed SEK units with about 40 special vehicles from all over North Rhine-Westphalia had been deployed to Solingen.

Road junctions have been blocked and residents have been asked to stay indoors and avoid the city center, the publication said.

According to German news agency DPA, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, had arrived in Solingen and was visiting the site of the incident.

He warned against speculation. "Out of nowhere, someone is stabbing people at random. Nothing can be said about the person or the motive," Reul said, adding that there are simply no reliable facts.

Solingen has a population of about 160,000. It is located near the larger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Witnesses in shock

The incident left those attending the festivities in shock. One witness told the Solinger Tageblatt he had been standing in front of the stage on the Fronhof when the attack took place just a few meters away from him.

He had been watching live music when he noticed the expression on the singer's face that something was wrong. 

"And then a person fell over just a meter away from me," Lars Breitzke told the local newspaper. At first, he thought the person was drunk. 

But when he turned around, Breitzke saw other people lying on the ground in pools of blood. He himself was unharmed.

Solingen's mayor Tim Kurzbach also expressed his shock following the deadly attack on the city's festival. "Tonight, all of us in Solingen are in shock, horror and great sadness," he wrote on the city's Facebook page. 

"We all wanted to celebrate our city anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured," he said. "I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives," Kurzbach added.

The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, said the state was united in shock and grief after the attack in Solingen. 

"In these dark hours, the hearts and minds of the people of our state and beyond are in Solingen, where an act of brutal and senseless violence has struck at the heart of our state," he wrote in a post on X. 

dh/ab (dpa, Reuters, AP)