One killed as car is rammed into crowd in German city of Mannheim

One person has been killed and others injured when a car was rammed into a crowd in western Germany, according to police.

A suspect is in custody after the incident in Mannheim on Monday.

Police asked the public to stay away from the central area and stay inside their homes.

A suspect is in custody.

Police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm said a driver rammed into a group of people in Paradeplatz, a pedestrianised street, killing one person.

He said “several” people were injured but police cannot yet specify how many and how badly they were hurt.

“We can confirm that one perpetrator was arrested,” he said. “We can’t yet give information on whether there were further perpetrators.”

Images from the scene showed parts of the central area were cordoned off, with a heavy police presence and helicopters hovering above.

Police gathered around a badly damaged black car as ambulances lined up outside the cordon.

A spokesperson had earlier said the incident was “a life-threatening deployment situation”.

Paradeplatz, a major square in the centre, is at the end of a pedestrianised street in Mannheim, which has a population of 326,000 and is 52 miles south of Frankfurt.

Mannheim University Hospital said it has prepared for a possible mass casualty incident, German news agency dpa reported.

The hospital has implemented its disaster and emergency plan to prepare.

Eight trauma teams have been made available, for adults and children, dpa reported.

“Postponable operations that had not yet begun were immediately removed from the operation plan in order to create additional operating capacity,” the university hospital told dpa. The capacities in the intensive care units have also been increased.

Authorities sent an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city centre due to a big police deployment.

Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires.

Across Germany, many people took a long weekend off to celebrate the carnival season, including Rose Monday, when many cities hold parades. Mannheim’s street parade took place on Sunday.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser cancelled her participation in a street parade in Cologne due to the events in Mannheim.

“The focus is now on saving lives, treating the injured and the initial investigations by the authorities in Mannheim,” an interior ministry spokesperson told dpa.

While police would not immediately characterise Monday’s incident as an attack, cars have been used as deadly weapons in several acts of violence in recent months.

Last month, a two-year-old girl and her mother died two days after they were injured in a car-ramming attack on a union demonstration in Munich.

A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested, and prosecutors said he appeared to have had an Islamic extremist motive.

Last year, six people were killed and more than 200 injured when a car slammed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right Alternative For Germany party.

Published: 03/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub