Driver rams car into crowd in Mannheim, Germany, killing 2
Interior Ministry says 40-year-old male suspect in custody
A driver rammed a car into a crowd Monday in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, and authorities said two people were killed and several others injured.
Police detained the driver, who appeared to have plowed intentionally into the crowd given the speed at which he was driving, prosecutors said, in an act Interior Minister Nancy Faeser labelled "horror in broad daylight."
He did not appear to have been politically or religiously motivated, but there were reasons to believe he was psychologically unwell, said Mannheim Chief Public Prosecutor Romeo Schluessler.
Prosecutors are investigating the suspect, a 40-year-old German man from the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder.
The suspect has not been questioned yet as he had to undergo medical treatment after shooting himself in the mouth with a blank-firing gun after the attack.
He appears to be a landscape gardener who lives alone, prosecutors said.
The two people who died were an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man.
Bild newspaper reported that in addition to the deceased, 25 people were injured, 15 of them seriously. The paper cited security sources.
Images from the scene showed parts of the downtown area were cordoned off, with a heavy police presence and helicopters hovering above. Police gathered round a badly damaged black car as ambulances lined up outside the cordon.
Paradeplatz, a major square in the downtown area, lies at the end of a pedestrianized street in Mannheim, which has a population of 326,000 and lies 85 kilometres south of Frankfurt.
Authorities pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city's downtown area due to a big police deployment. Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires.
"Canada is appalled by yet another terrible act of violence against innocent people in Germany," Global Affairs Canada posted on X. "Our thoughts are with the victims in Mannheim and their loved ones. To our German friends, Canada mourns with you."
Security has been a key concern in Germany following a string of violent attacks in recent weeks, including deadly car rammings in Magdeburg in December and in Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May 2024.
Across Germany, many people took a long weekend off to celebrate carnival, including Rose Monday, when several cities hold parades. Mannheim's street parade, however, already took place, on Sunday.
With files from The Associated Press and CBC News