04-03-2025
What we know so far about the fatal car-ramming incident in Mannheim
Germany is in a state of shock after a car was driven into a crowd of pedestrians in the centre of Mannheim on Monday afternoon, killing at least two people.
It is the third suspected car-ramming attack the country has seen since December, with previous fatal incidents occurring in Magdeburg and Munich.
While investigations are ongoing, the police say they have arrested a suspect and are treating the event as a deliberate attack. These are the latest facts that have emerged.
How did events unfold on Monday?
According to police reports, a man drove a black Ford Fiesta at high speed into a crowd of people in Mannheim city centre at around 12:15pm on Monday.
The centre of Baden-Württemberg's second largest city was bustling with shoppers and people enjoying the carnival market for Rose Monday. Food stalls and fairground rides had been set up along the Kapuzinerplanken shopping street and around the water tower.
The car reportedly sped along the Friedrichsring road and into the pedestrian zone along the main shopping street of Planken towards Paradeplatz, hitting several pedestrians along the way.
Eyewitness Enes Yildiz, who works in a nearby tax office, told AFP that he heard a loud noise at the time of the incident and went outside to find the streets in "disarray".
"It was a mess, as if it had been hit by a bomb," he said. A dead body was seen lying on the ground and there were pools of blood everywhere.
"There were a lot of people crying, people shouting for help, people calling the police," Yildiz told reporters.
The intensive care unit of Mannheim's university hospital quickly issued a disaster alert, while heavily armed police swarmed the area and blocked off a number of roads in and out of the city centre.
According to a report in Tagesschau, a taxi driver's heroic act contributed to the arrest of the suspect. Having witnessed the horrific incident, the taxi driver followed the Ford in his car along the road towards a dead end.
After the suspect unsuccessfully attempted to head in the direction of the Rhine crossing towards Ludwigshafen, the taxi driver got in the way of the driver with his vehicle, forcing the suspect to flee on foot. He fled towards the harbour where he was placed under arrest.
Why had the streets not been cordoned off?
Despite the police being on high alert for the carnival season, authorities in Mannheim had apparently seen no reason to cordon off the market and the pedestrian zone.
According to police, bollards and other barriers would have created traffic congestion and made it difficult to organise deliveries to shops in the areas.
Nevertheless, there will no doubt be questions in the coming days and weeks about whether the security precautions were high enough.
Police patrol the scene after the suspected car-ramming attack in Mannheim. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler
Who were the victims?
Media reports on the number of victims have varied, but the latest information from police reveals that two people were killed in the incident: an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man.
In addition, at least 11 people were injured - five of them seriously. All of the victims were rushed to hospital and are receiving treatment.
According to Andreas Stenger, President of the State Office of Criminal Investigation, there is no evidence that children were involved or hurt in the alleged attack.
What do we know about the suspect?
Rumours and fake news have swirled in the wake of the suspected attack, forcing Mannheim police to issue several statements urging people to rely only on official sources.
On Monday evening, public prosecutors and police confirmed that a 40-year-old German man had been put under arrest in connection with the incident. The man comes from the neighbouring city of Ludwigshafen in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is situated on the other side of the Rhine from Mannheim.
He is believed to be single and previously worked as a landscape gardener, though it is unclear if he was employed at the time of the incident.
The man has several previous convictions, prosecutors said. These include an assault offence that resulted in a short prison sentence more than ten years ago, as well as a case of drunk driving.
Police search the Ludwigshafen apartment of the suspect in the Mannheim car-ramming incident on Monday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/NEWS5 | Ferdinand Merzbach
The most recent offence was a hate speech offence from 2018, when the man was sentenced to a fine for a Facebook comment on a post from a far-right group.
During the arrest, the man apparently shot himself in the mouth with a blank-firing pistol and is currently being treated for his injuries in hospital. Police have placed him under investigation for two counts of murder as well as several counts of attempted murder. They hope to be able to question him on Tuesday.
Was there a terrorist motive?
The motive for the attack remains unclear, though public prosecutors say there is so far no evidence that the suspect had an extremist or a religious motive.
However, there were "concrete indications" the perpetrator was suffering from a mental illness, investigators said. This is set to be the focus of ongoing investigations.
So far, the evidence points to the car-ramming incident being a deliberate and targeted attack in which the suspect attempted to run down as many pedestrians as possible.
In the destroyed Ford Fiesta, investigators found a handwritten note stuck to the dashboard under transparent film, which appeared to lay out plans for the attack.
On Tuesday, German daily Bild reported that the note contained scrawlings in blue ink, including a grimacing face with its tongue sticking out and mathematical calculations for recording the speed and reaction time of a vehicle. Investigators are probing whether this is relevant to the suspected crime.
According to DPA, the alleged perpetrator's flat in Ludwigshafen was also searched on Monday evening, and several unspecified items were seized.
What happens now?
In the aftermath of the traumatic incident, the carnival market in the centre of Mannheim has been shut down. In addition, three large department stores in the city centre will remain closed on Tuesday.
Singer Maite Kelly cancelled a concert planned for Wednesday in Mannheim out of respect for the victims. In addition, several carnival events planned for Tuesday in Baden-Württemberg were cancelled, including parades Heidelberg and Schwetzingen.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also cancelled a planned appearance at the Rose Monday parade in Cologne in order to travel to Mannheim on Monday.
Meanwhile, many politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), CDU leader Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed their condolences.
"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 on X, adding: "We cannot accept this."
With reporting by AFP and DPA.
