A suspect is in custody after one particular person was killed and others injured when a automobile rammed right into a crowd within the southwestern German metropolis of Mannheim, police say.
Hours after the early Monday afternoon (Monday night time AEDT) incident, they stated “indications of a second perpetrator can’t be confirmed at this stage of the investigation” however there was no extra hazard to the general public.
Automobiles have been used as lethal weapons in a number of acts of violence in latest months in Germany however police wouldn’t instantly characterise the incident as an assault.
The driving force is a 40-year-old German from the close by state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Thomas Strobl, the state inside minister of Baden-Württemberg, the place Mannheim is predicated, informed German information company dpa.
Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm stated a driver drove into folks on Paradeplatz, a pedestrianised avenue downtown, about midday (10pm AEDT), when staff come for lunch breaks.
Native media reported a carnival market was happening, that means extra guests than standard in Mannheim, with a inhabitants of 326,000.
Mannheim College Hospital stated it was treating three folks from the crash, two adults and a toddler, German information company dpa reported.
It was not instantly clear whether or not different hospitals obtained sufferers.
Pictures from the scene confirmed elements of the downtown space cordoned off, with a heavy police presence. Police gathered spherical a badly broken black automobile.
A 24-year-old Afghan man who got here to Germany as an asylum seeker was arrested instantly after the assault, and prosecutors stated he appeared to have had an Islamic extremist motive.
Final yr, six folks have been killed and greater than 200 injured when a automobile slammed right into a Christmas market in japanese Germany metropolis of Magdeburg. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old physician initially from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and help for the far-right, anti-immigrant Various For Germany get together.
