Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival

A Syrian man suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group pleaded guilty Tuesday 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, which was held under tight security at the higher regional court in Duesseldorf.

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.

"I deserve and expect a life sentence."

The stabbing spree at the mid-summer street festival was one of a string of attacks that shocked Germany and stoked security fears.

Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation.

German authorities' failure to remove him from the country fired a bitter debate over immigration in the run-up to national elections in February this year.

Hasan faces charges including three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and membership of a foreign terror organisation.