SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) The Islamic State militant group on Saturday claimed responsibility for a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight more at a crowded festival marking this citys 650th anniversary.

The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that as a soldier of the Islamic State he carried out the assaults Friday night to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.

The IS claim couldnt immediately be verified. It provided no evidence for its assertions.

Police later detained a suspect, the internal affairs minister of North Rhein Westphalia state said early Sunday.

We have been following a hot lead all day, Herbert Reul told Tagesschau, the news program of the German public television network ARD. The person we have been searching for all day has been detained a short while ago.

He was being questioned, Reul said.

Reul said police not only had clues but also collected pieces of evidence.

Officials earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.

Before the Reul announcement, Markus Caspers, senior public prosecutor from the counterterrorism section of the public prosecutors office, said at a news conference Saturday that authorities could not yet speak on the attackers motivation.

So far we have not been able to identify a motive, but looking at the overall circumstances, we cannot rule out the possibility of terrorism, Caspers said, though he did not offer further details.

The three people who died were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims throats.

We are seeing the first signs of a new wave of terrorist attacks, said Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at Kings College in London. IS is trying to capitalize on the huge mobilization resulting from Hamas terror offensive on 7 October 2023, even though strictly speaking it had nothing to do with it, he said.