Germany, car ploughs into Mannheim Carnival market crowd, at least one dead, many injured

Brussels – In Mannheim, West Germany, a car ploughed into the crowd in the Planken shopping street in the city centre at a Carnival market. Local police have confirmed one death while the current injury toll counts 25 people, many of them in critical condition. According to broadcaster Bild, the driver, a 40-year-old German man from the province of Rhineland-Palatinate, was stopped by police officers at the scene, however, it is not yet known whether it was a deliberate attack or an accident.

At present, there don’t appear to be any other perpetrators.

According to initial reconstructions, a black SUV allegedly ploughed into the Paradeplatz pedestrian zone at high speed. The city centre was closed and cordoned off, residents were asked to avoid the downtown area while police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm confirmed that a “large-scale operation” had already been launched. The national alert service Katwarn had previously declared a “life-threatening situation” in Mannheim.

Fears of a terrorist attack are fueled by the recent attacks in Germany where vehicles were driven into crowds. In December, six people were killed in Magdeburg while in mid-February a bomber ran over a group of protesters in Munich, killing a child and a young woman.

Mannheim is located in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Here, on May 31, a young man stabbed five people, killing one of the policemen who intervened to stop him. Prosecutors believe it may have been an Islamist attack; the trial began last February.