Sawt Falasteen - Two dead as car hits crowd in German city

Politicians and police treated the noon-time vehicle rampage in the southwestern city of Mannheim as a deliberate act. Germany has been shocked by two other deadly car-ramming attacks since December.

"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."

"This act is one of several crimes in the recent past in which a car was misused as a weapon," said the Baden-Wuerttemberg state interior minister Thomas Strobl.

He said the sole suspect in the case lived in the city of Ludwigshafen, which lies directly across the river Rhine from Mannheim but is in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Strobl added that investigators saw "no indication of an extremist or religious background", while prosecutors said investigators had "concrete indications that the perpetrator had a mental illness".

Officials confirmed reports the suspect shot himself in the mouth with a blank-firing pistol as he was being arrested, and needed medical treatment. His condition was described as stable but police had not yet been able to question him.

The driver ploughed a small black Ford passenger vehicle through a downtown pedestrian shopping area at around 12:15 local time (1115 GMT) where a carnival market was located with dozens of food stalls, rides and games.

"It's heartbreaking," cafe owner Kasim Timur, 57, was quoted as telling news site Der Spiegel, adding that one of his staff had seen seriously injured people, among them children.

Police with heavy weapons soon shut down and evacuated the inner city as helicopters flew overhead and citizens were told to stay indoors via warning apps during the "life-threatening situation".

- 'Very loud noise' -

Enes Yildiz, 24, who works in tax consulting at a nearby office, said: "I just heard a very, very loud noise. It was rather extraordinary, not a noise that you hear every day."

He went down to the street and saw a dead body lying on the ground and pools of blood, he said. The motionless victim appeared to have been thrown through the air by the impact.

"There were a lot of people crying, people shouting for help, people calling the police."

He walked further down the street to witness the carnage at the city's central Paradeplatz: "It was a mess, as if it had been hit by a bomb. The whole place was in disarray."

Yildiz saw more victims lying in the street, he recounted. "I was shocked. I grew up here, I work here every day. I walk along the route where it happened every day."

The intensive care unit of Mannheim's university hospital quickly issued a disaster alert, readying for a wave of casualties needing emergency treatment.

German cities have seen several violent attacks in recent months, including stabbing sprees and car-ramming attacks.

Security was a major theme in last month's general election, which was won by the conservative CDU/CSU alliance led by Friedrich Merz, the presumed next chancellor.

The incident "is a stark reminder to us: we must do everything we can to prevent such crimes... Germany must become a safe country again," Merz wrote on X.

- Spate of attacks -

Last month a man drove a car into a trade union rally 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.

A Syrian man is now on trial over that attack, which took place around 300 metres (1,000 feet) from Monday's car ramming.

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

Authorities were on high alert Monday, which was the high point of traditional German carnival celebrations before the beginning of Lent.

Mannheim had seen thousands take to the streets on Sunday for its own carnival parade.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser cancelled her visit to the Rose Monday parade in Cologne to travel to Mannheim, where she condemned the act of "horror in broad daylight" and the "simply unimaginably terrible act that happened here".

G.AbuGhazaleh--SF-PST