A German man drove a car right into a crowd of individuals within the western German metropolis of Mannheim on Monday, killing no less than two individuals and leaving others significantly injured, in line with police. Town’s police power urged individuals to keep away from central Mannheim, and later stated there didn’t seem like a political motivation behind the incident.
The incident got here as crowds gathered in cities throughout Germany for parades to mark the Christian Carnival season, and witnesses stated the incident occurred close to one such occasion. The ramming got here on what Christian Germans mark as Rose Monday, the spotlight of their carnival season that takes place on Shrove Monday, earlier than the Lenten interval begins on Ash Wednesday.
In statements posted on social media, the police confirmed an ongoing operation after “a automobile drove into a bunch of individuals in Mannheim metropolis middle.”
5 individuals have been significantly injured and 5 others suffered minor accidents, the police stated.
Dieter Leder/image alliance/Getty
The police stated officers “have been in a position to arrest the 40-year-old German suspect from Rhineland-Palatinate,” the German state that town of Mannheim sits proper on the jap border of. They stated “on the present stage of the investigation, it isn’t assumed that there’s a political background” to the incident.
An eyewitness on the scene instructed Reuters they noticed a number of individuals on the bottom, together with two whom medics gave the impression to be trying to resuscitate.
Native media retailers, citing witnesses, stated some had seen a black SUV drive at excessive pace from an space the place a parade was going down, hitting individuals and leaving a number of significantly wounded.
This breaking information story shall be up to date.
