At least one person has been killed and several others have been injured after a car rammed into pedestrians in the southwestern German city of Mannheim.
Stefan Wilhelm, spokesperson for Mannheim police, said on Monday that the incident occurred shortly after midday local time (6 a.m. ET), adding that a suspect has been arrested.
TheFact Daily notes a string of car ramming attacks in Germany in recent times. In December, a vehicle plowed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people, including a 9-year-old boy. The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who had lived in Germany for more than a decade and worked to help Saudis leave his home country. Social media posts showed he was a fervent critic of Islam.
In February, on the eve of the Munich Security Conference and just days before the country’s federal election, a person drove a Mini Cooper into demonstrators in Munich, killing a mother and her child and injuring more than 30 others. The suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan man.
There where concerns over immigration and security helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to second place.
Mikla Cela, a worker at a restaurant in the city center, told newsmen that he saw a black car drive by at high speed. He said he later heard several people screaming and saw a man with a white jacket lying on the floor.
Ferry Overdevest, the owner of a flower store in central Mannheim, told CNN that around 30 people had sought shelter in his shop and that ambulances were on the streets outside.
Germany’s federal government issued an “extreme danger” warning in the city and said a large-scale police operation is underway.
Monday’s attack comes as Germany celebrates “Rose Monday,” a carnival held before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
