Two dead, more wounded while car hits the crowd in the German city: Police

Mannheim-Muni, a driver hit a lot in southwest Germany, killing two people and seriously injuring more, authorities said, adding that a 40-year-old German suspect was arrested on the spot.

The army police closed and evacuated the inner city of Mannheim after a car was driven by a pedestrian commercial area, the authorities saying that they work to determine the “motivation of the perpetrator”.

Two car attacks in other German cities in December killed eight people, while Mannheim was the scene of an attack stabbed at an anti-Islam meeting, who killed a policeman and injured five others.

Security was a major theme in the general elections last month, which was won by CDU/CSU from the right center under Friedrich Merz.

The incident “is an emphasized reminder for us: we have to do everything we can to prevent such crimes … Germany has to become a safe country again,” Merz wrote on X.

The driver showed a pedestrian area on Monday where a carnival market was located with dozens of food stands, travel and games.

“A car drove in a group of people in the center of Mannheim. Two people died, and a few others are seriously injured,” said the Interior Minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Thomas Strobl.

Strobl added that the suspect arrested on the spot was a 40-year-old German man from the neighboring state of Renania.

“The police work hard to clarify what happened, the crime fund and motivation of the perpetrator,” Strobl added.

“She is a heartbreaking,” the owner of Cafe, Kasim Timur, 57, was quoted, was quoted as the der Spiegel news site, adding that one of his staff has seen seriously injured, among them children.

“We see only injured and dead people and we do not know what to do,” was quoted another trader of the local daily Mannheimer Morgen.

Police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm said that residents were urged “to avoid the area of ​​the inner city” against the background of the major police operation.

The officers with heavy weapons threw themselves outside the area and the police helicopters were seen in the air.

The daily Bild said that 25 people were injured in the incident, images presenting several ambulances in the area near the city’s water tower.

A reporter on the spot for News Channel NTV said that “at least one person is covered under a tarp” and that children’s shoes were among clothes and scraps scattered on the ground.

Extends to attacks

The intensive care unit of the Mannheim University Hospital has declared a disaster alert, preparing for a wave of victims who need emergency treatment.

German cities have registered several violent attacks in recent months, including stabs and car attacks.

Last month, a man drove a car in a trade union meeting in the south of Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother. The police arrested an Afghan suspect aged 24.

In December, an attack of car branches targeted a Christmas market in the east of Magdeburg, killing six people and hurting hundreds. The police arrested a Saudi man on the spot.

Mannheim itself was the scene of an attack stabbed at an anti-Islam rally in May, in which a policeman was killed and five others injured, with a Syrian man in the trial.

The authorities were on high alert, because Monday is the high point of traditional German carnival holidays before the beginning of the post.

The Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said before the Incident in Mannheim that the festivities took place “with high security precautions”.

Mannheim had seen thousands of people on the street for their own carnival parade on Sunday.

Faeser canceled the visit to The Rose Monday Parade in Cologne to travel to Mannheim.

Against the background of attacks in Germany, which fueled support for the far-right AFD, Merz promised a “zero tolerance” law and an order leadership.

Merz’s party is now in discussions with Social -Democrats of the Chancellor Olaf Scholz to form a new coalition government.