One dead, several hurt as car hits crowd in German city: Police
3 Mar 2025 19:36
Mannheim (AFP)A car driven into a crowd in southwest Germany on Monday killed at least one person and injured several more, police said, adding that a suspected "perpetrator" had been arrested.Armed police shut down the inner city of Mannheim where a damaged Ford passenger vehicle sat near a pedestrian shopping arcade with the front windshield smashed. Two car ramming attacks in other German cities since December have killed eight people, while Mannheim was the scene of a stabbing attack at a rally in May that killed a policeman and wounded five other people.
Police did not call the latest incident an attack but said a suspected "perpetrator" had been arrested after the car was driven through a downtown shopping area around 12:15 pm (1115 GMT)."We can now confirm that a car was driven into a pedestrian zone and that one person was killed," said police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm, adding that several people were injured. "One suspect was arrested," he said, adding that "the investigation is continuing"."It's heartbreaking," cafe owner Kasim Timur, 57, was quoted as telling news site Der Spiegel, adding that one of his staff members had seen seriously injured people, among them children.Wilhelm said residents had been urged "to avoid the inner city area" amid the major police operation. Officers with heavy weapons cordoned off the area and police helicopters were seen in the air.The Bild daily said two people were killed and 25 injured in the incident, with pictures showing ambulances near the city's historical water tower.
Spate of attacks The Baden-Wuerttemberg state interior ministry had warned the population of a "life-threatening situation" through its disaster warning app as the first reports of the incident emerged.The intensive care unit of Mannheim's university hospital declared a disaster alert. German cities have seen several violent attacks in recent months, including stabbing sprees and car ramming attacks blamed on asylum seekers.Last month a man drove a car into a trade union demonstration in the southern city of Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother. Police arrested a 24-year-old suspect.In December a car-ramming attack targeted a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds. Police arrested a man at the scene.Mannheim itself was the scene of a stabbing attack at a rally in May in which a policeman was killed and five others wounded, with a man now on trial over the attack.Authorities were on high alert as Monday is the high point of traditional German carnival celebrations before the beginning of Lent.Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said before the incident in Mannheim that festivities were taking place "with high security precautions".Mannheim had seen thousands take to the streets on Sunday for its own carnival parade.Faeser cancelled her visit to the Rose Monday parade in Cologne to travel to Mannheim.
Security was a major theme in last month's general election, which was won by CDU/CSU under Friedrich Merz.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Etihad
14 minutes ago
- Al Etihad
At least 15 dead in Malaysia bus accident
9 June 2025 09:57 Kuala Lumpur (AFP)At least 15 people were killed when a bus carrying university students smashed into a minivan in northern Malaysia early on Monday, local rescue services victims died at the scene near the town of Gerik, on the busy East-West Highway close to the Thailand border, while two died in hospital. Thirty-three others were injured, including seven whose condition was critical, rescue services said in a revised statement."The bus overturned and the minivan slid into a ditch," the Perak state disaster management authority said. "Some victims managed to get out on their own, some victims were thrown out while others were still (trapped) in the bus," the authority bus was carrying students from the Sultan Idris Education University, north of Kuala Lumpur, when it collided with the minivan at around 1:00 am on Monday (1700 GMT on Sunday).Rescue services said a hydraulic cutter was needed to free six of the victims in the bus."Four had died and two others were seriously injured," the rescue services said. Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered the Southeast Asian nation's Higher Education Ministry to help the victim's said in a Facebook post he and his wife Azizah were "deeply saddened" by the tragedy."Heartbreaking disasters like these that are repeated often should be a lesson to all to be careful and not to rush to pursue the destination," Anwar said. "Your lives are too precious and can't be replaced," he added.
The National
13 hours ago
- The National
US National Guard sent to crack down on immigration protests
Members of the National Guard in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles. AFP
Al Etihad
14 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Tanzania crash kills at least 28
8 June 2025 20:44 DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) A lorry driver lost control of its brakes and slammed into two other vehicles in Tanzania, killing at least 28 people in one of the worst recent road accidents in the country, officials said police chief, Benjamin Kuzaga, said in a statement, one of the vehicles struck in the accident late Saturday, a minibus, was hurled into a river in the country's southwest, near the border with killed included 10 women and four children, Kuzaga said, blaming the truck driver's "negligence.""The cause of the accident has been attributed to the negligence of the lorry driver, who failed to control the vehicle on the steep Iwambi hill," he President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on X, formerly Twitter, that she learnt of the deadly accident "with deep sorrow."Road accidents are common in Tanzania, with a 2018 report by the World Health Organisation citing 3,256 deaths in 2016 according to official figures -- but estimating that the actual number of deaths was between 13,000 and 19,000. In 2024, at least 25 people, including an American, a South African and a Kenyan, were killed in the country's north when a truck collided with three other vehicles.
