At least one person has been killed and others injured when a car rammed into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim, police say as they ask the public to stay away from the downtown area.
Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm said a driver on Monday drove into a group of people in Paradeplatz, a square in a pedestrianised area of Mannheim.
He said “several” people were injured but police could not yet specify how many were hurt or how badly they were hurt.
“We can confirm that one perpetrator was arrested,” he said. “We can’t yet give information on whether there were further perpetrators.”
Paradeplatz, a major square in the downtown area, lies at the end of a pedestrianised street in Mannheim, which has a population of 326,000 and is 85km (52 miles) south of Frankfurt.
Mannheim University Hospital said it has prepared for a possible mass casualty incident, the German news agency dpa reported. The hospital has implemented its disaster and emergency plan to prepare for the care of the injured.
Local authorities have also pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city’s downtown area due to a big police deployment. Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, attacks or fires.
At least one killed when car drives into a crowd in Germany’s Mannheim | Crime News | Al Jazeera