What We Know About the Knife Attack in Germany That Killed 3

German police are hunting for a man who on Friday night attacked nearly a dozen people with a knife, killing three, during a street festival in the western city of Solingen.

At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, the authorities said they had not ruled out that it was a terrorist attack because no other explanation for the seemingly random violence made sense.

The police said they had detained a 15-year-old boy for questioning whom they believed might have had prior knowledge of the attack. The state attorney is not treating the youth as a suspect.

What happened?

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., the attacker started stabbing people who had gathered at the festival to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary. The attack occurred during a live music performance, not far from a temporary stage set up for the event, which was billed as a “Festival of Diversity.”

The police said it appeared that the attacker chose victims from the crowd at random and that he appeared to target at least one of the victims’ necks.

The festival, which was planned to run through Sunday, was immediately canceled as emergency workers tended to the injured and the police tried to get a handle on the situation.