The number of casualties was not immediately clear, according to the domestic press.
An unknown number of people have been killed and injured in what was reportedly a knife attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen.
It was not immediately clear how many casualties there have been, with the newspaper Bild saying a man stabbed passers-by at random, adding that ‘several’ people had been killed.
The attack happened on Fronhof Square in the city centre.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt newspaper reported that authorities had asked people to leave the downtown area and that one of the festival organisers, Philipp Müller, said on stage that emergency workers were fighting for the lives of nine people.
The perpetrator was still at large, according to the authorities.
The festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday.
Solingen has about 160,000 inhabitants and is located near Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.