A driver ploughed into a crowd in the German city of Mannheim on Monday, March 3, killing at least one person and injuring several more.
Police said that one person has been arrested.
Armed police shut down the inner city where a damaged car could be seen with the front window smashed.
Police did not call the latest incident an attack but said a suspected “perpetrator” had been arrested after the car was driven through a shopping area around 12:15pm (1115 GMT).
“We can now confirm that a car was driven into a pedestrian zone and that one person was killed,” said police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm, adding that several people were injured.
“We can confirm that one suspect was arrested,” he said, adding that “the investigation is continuing”.
Wilhelm said residents had been urged “to avoid the inner city area” amid the major police operation. Officers with heavy weapons cordoned off the area and police helicopters were seen in the air.
The Bild daily said two people were k!lled and 25 injured in the incident, with pictures showing ambulances near the city’s historical water tower.
A reporter at the scene for news channel NTV said that “at least one person is lying covered under a tarpaulin” and that children’s shoes were scattered in the debris scattered on the ground.
Police called on residents to avoid the city centre and stay indoors as the area was largely evacuated.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg state interior ministry had warned the population of a “life-threatening situation” through its disaster warning app.
The intensive care unit of Mannheim’s university hospital declared a disaster alert.
German cities have seen several violent attacks, including stabbing sprees and car ramming attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
This is the third time in three months that a driver would intentionally ram into a crowd and k!ll people in Germany.
In February 2015, a man drove a car into a trade union demonstration in the southern city of Munich, k!lling a two-year-old girl and her mother.
In December 2024, a car-ramming attack targeted a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, k!lling six people and wounding hundreds.
Mannheim, where the latest car ramming incident occurred today, was the scene of a stabbing attack at an anti-Islam rally last May in which a policeman was k!lled and five others wounded.
Source: Linda Ikeji Blog
