The motorist who drove his car into a crowd of people in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, killing at least two, intended to do so, police and public prosecutors said at a joint press conference on Monday evening.
The suspect, who is 40 years old, was detained following the incident, the interior minister of the state, Baden-Württemberg, where Mannheim is based, told reporters earlier in the day.
Police and prosecutors later added at the news conference that the the suspect, a German man, is being investigated for murder and attempted murder.
They said the driver shot himself in the mouth when he was arrested and had to undergo medical treatment at a hospital. He could not yet be questioned.
A senior public prosecutor said the man was suffering from psychological problems and that investigators were looking into that aspect more closely.
Mannheim car ramming incident being treated as an intentional attack Several cities across Germany were holding parades on Monday to mark the carnival season. Mannheim’s main parade took place on Sunday.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser canceled her participation in a carnival parade in Cologne and has been briefed on the incident, a ministry spokesperson said.
“The rescue of human lives, care of the injured and the initial investigations by the authorities in Mannheim are now the priority,” the spokesperson added.
2 dead as car drives into crowd in German city of MannheimTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
What we know about the car ramming, suspect The incident took place at Paradeplatz, a major square in the downtown area, at around noon.
State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said the driver was a 40-year-old German man.
After arresting the suspect, police said that he did not appear to be politically motivated.
“At the current stage of the investigation, there is no suspicion of a political background,” they said.
Police initially announced that one person had been killed in the incident. Strobl later raised the death toll to two.
Authorities sent an alert on the Katwarn app to tell the public in Mannheim to avoid the city center. The app is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies.
The Mannheim University Hospital said it had implemented an emergency plan in case of a possible mass casualty incident, according to the DPA news agency.
Authorities have not labeled the incident as an attack.
The city center in Mannheim was cordoned off as police responded to the incidentImage: Dieter Leder/dpa/picture alliance Merz says country ought to become ‘safe again’ “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Germany’s likely future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, wrote in a post on social media X.
“The incident — like the terrible acts of the past few months — is a stark reminder that we must do everything we can to prevent such acts,” he said, adding that “Germany must become a safe country again.”
Following the incident, Christian Specht, Mannheim’s Lord Mayor, ordered the flags on municipal buildings to be lowered to half-mast.
“This horrific, inhuman attack on peaceful people has deeply shocked us all,” Specht said.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his “deepest sympathy” for the relatives of the victims.
“It is terrible what they have to go through,” Steinmeier said via his spokeswoman on X.
Car rammings in Germany In recent months, two major attacks involved vehicles hitting crowds in German cities.
Monday’s incident comes just weeks after two people were killed in a car ramming in Munich. Prosecutors said the suspect, who was identified as an Afghan seeking asylum in Germany, seemed to have an Islamist motive.
In December, a car drove into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring 200. The suspect was a Saudi doctor who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) party.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
Comments