Pallade Veneta - Two dead, several hurt as car hits crowd in German city: police

Armed police shut down and evacuated the inner city of Mannheim after a car was driven through a pedestrian shopping area, with authorities saying they were working to determine the "perpetrator's motivation".

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 last May that killed a policeman and wounded five other people.

Security was a major theme in last month's general election, which was won by the centre-right CDU/CSU under Friedrich Merz.

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.

The driver on Monday ploughed through a pedestrian area where a carnival market was located with dozens of food stalls, rides and games.

"A car drove into a group of people in Mannheim's city centre. Two people died and several others are seriously injured," Baden-Wuerttemberg state's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said.

Strobl added that the suspect arrested at the scene was a 40-year-old German man from the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

"The police are working hard to clarify what happened, the background to the crime and the perpetrator's motivation," Strobl added.

"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," another shopkeeper was quoted as saying by the local daily Mannheimer Morgen.

Police spokesman Stefan 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 25 people were injured in the incident, with pictures showing multiple ambulances in the area near the city's landmark 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 intensive care unit of Mannheim's university hospital declared 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.

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, 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.

Amid the spate of attacks in Germany, 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.

N.Tartaglione--PV