A Syrian man has said he “deserves and expects a life sentence” after pleading guilty to killing three people at a German festival last year.

Issa al-Hasan, 27, a suspected member of the Islamic State group, made the confession at the start of his trial, held under tight security in Duesseldorf.

The attack at the mid-summer street festival in Solingen in August 2024, which also injured 10 people, was one in a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that pushed immigration to the top of the political agenda in Germany.

Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation, but authorities had failed to remove him from the country.

He is charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.