A Syrian asylum seeker suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group has pleaded guilty to killing three people and wounding 10 more in a stabbing spree at a German summer festival last year.
Issa Al Hasan, 27, made the confession at the start of his trial, held under tight security at the higher regional court in Duesseldorf on Tuesday.
In a statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan, sitting under police guard behind a protective glass screen, admitted having 'committed a grave crime'.
'Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,' Hasan said of the attack in August in the western city of Solingen.
'Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too,' he said in the statement.
