Sawt Falasteen - One dead, several hurt as car hits crowd in German city: police

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 an anti-Islam 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.

"We only see wounded people and the dead person, and we don't know what to do," a shopkeeper was quoted as saying by the local daily Mannheimer Morgen.

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.

A reporter at the scene for news channel NTV said that "at least one person is lying covered under a tarpaulin" and that children's shoes were among the clothes and debris scattered on the ground.

- 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 Afghan 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 Saudi man at the scene.

Mannheim itself was the scene of a stabbing attack at an anti-Islam rally in May in which a policeman was killed and five others wounded, with a Syrian 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 the centre-right CDU/CSU under Friedrich Merz.

Amid the spate of attacks, which fuelled support for the far-right AfD, Merz pledged a "zero tolerance" law and order drive.

Merz's party is now in talks with the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz to form a new coalition government.

H.Jarrar--SF-PST