Deutsche Welle :
Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday morning in the wake of a fatal knife attack that killed three people.
Speaking in the town, Scholz called for stricter knife laws and said questions must be answered about the failed deportation of the 26-year-old Syrian suspect.
The alleged attacker has been in custody since Saturday evening facing various charges, including suspected murder and membership of the “Islamic State” group.
Scholz expects new weapons regulations ‘very quickly’
Scholz’s first stop was the crime scene where he laid a white rose at the site of the knife attack in a market square where two men, aged 67 and 56, and a 56-year-old woman were killed. Eight more people were injured, four of them seriously.
The attack, in the western state of North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), shocked the country and renewed debate about immigration ahead of important regional elections next weekend.
“This was terrorism, terrorism against us all,” Scholz told reporters after the flower-laying. IS on Saturday claimed that the attacker was acting on its behalf.
“We will now have to tighten up the weapons regulations… in particular with regard to the use of knives,” he said. “I’m sure this will happen very quickly.”
Germany recently debated a possible restriction on the length of knives that can be carried in public from 12 centimeters to 6 centimeters.