A man drove a car into a crowd in Mannheim, Germany, on Monday, killing two people and seriously injuring five, police said. A 40-year-old German man was arrested in connection with the suspected attack.
Authorities, including politicians and police, are treating the midday incident as a deliberate act. The attack comes as Germany reels from two other fatal car-ramming incidents since December.
"Once again we mourn with the relatives of the victims of a senseless act of violence and fear for the injured," Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X, adding, "We cannot accept this."
Baden-Württemberg state Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said the attack was one of several recent cases in which a vehicle was used as a weapon. The suspect, who lived in the nearby city of Ludwigshafen, was arrested and is receiving medical treatment.
Authorities said there was no indication of an extremist or religious motive, adding that the attack may have been linked to the suspect’s personal circumstances.
The driver plowed a small black Ford through a busy pedestrian shopping area around 12:15 p.m. local time (1115 GMT), where a carnival market with food stalls, rides, and games was taking place.
"It's heartbreaking," said cafe owner Kasim Timur, 57, telling news outlet Der Spiegel that one of his employees saw several seriously injured people, including children.
Police shut down and evacuated the area, urging people to stay indoors as helicopters circled overhead.
"I just heard a very, very loud noise. It was extraordinary — not something you hear every day," said Enes Yıldız, 24, who works at a nearby tax consulting office.
When he went outside, he saw a body lying on the ground and pools of blood.
"There were a lot of people crying, people shouting for help, people calling the police," he said.
At the city's central Paradeplatz, he described "a scene of chaos, as if it had been hit by a bomb" with victims lying in the street and debris scattered everywhere.
Mannheim's university hospital issued a disaster alert, preparing for an influx of emergency patients.
Germany has seen a string of violent attacks in recent months, including similar car-ramming incidents.
Last month, a man drove a car into a trade union rally in Munich, killing a mother and her two-year-old child. In December, another car-ramming attack targeted a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring dozens.
Mannheim itself was the scene of a stabbing at an anti-Islam rally in May, where a police officer was killed and five others wounded. A suspect is currently on trial for that attack, which took place just 300 meters (980 feet) from Monday’s incident.
With security a central issue in last month’s general election, conservative leader Friedrich Merz – who is expected to become the next chancellor – pledged a "zero tolerance" approach to crime and stronger law enforcement measures.
"This incident is a stark reminder that we must do everything we can to prevent such crimes... Germany must become a safe country again," Merz wrote on X.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser canceled her planned visit to a carnival parade in Cologne to travel to Mannheim, where she condemned the "horror in broad daylight" and the "simply unimaginably terrible act that happened here."
