Car Speeds into Crowd in Mannheim: Police in Major Operation

According to this, there are indications that the 40-year-old German, who allegedly drove his car into a group of people, has a mental illness. Therefore, they will focus on this aspect, said prosecutor Romeo Schüssler on Monday evening. There are no indications of a religious or extremist background.

This was previously communicated by Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl. The alleged perpetrator is said to have driven into several people with his car on the central Mannheim shopping street Planken on Rose Monday. An 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man died according to investigators. Eleven people were injured, several of them seriously.

The police assume that the man deliberately targeted his victims. It quickly became clear that the incident in Mannheim was a deliberate drive in which several people were intentionally hit, said Mannheim's police president Ulrike Schäfer.

Suspect Injured in Hospital

The alleged perpetrator was arrested shortly after the deadly drive and is in the hospital. During his arrest, the man is said to have shot himself in the mouth with a blank gun. The president of the state criminal police office, Andreas Stenger, confirmed corresponding media reports. The health condition of the 40-year-old from Ludwigshafen (Rhineland-Palatinate) is currently stable. However, he has not yet been able to be questioned.

The prosecutor accuses the landscaper of, among other things, murder. An investigation has been initiated for double murder and multiple attempted murder, said Schüssler. The man had previously come to the attention of authorities, but rather with minor offenses. There are a few previous convictions that date back a long time, said Schüssler. These include an assault for which he served a short prison sentence over ten years ago, as well as a case of drunk driving.

The last offense was a hate speech-related crime from 2018. He posted a corresponding comment on Facebook and was therefore sentenced to a fine. Further information was not initially available.

Raced Several Hundred Meters Through Shopping Street in Mannheim

According to eyewitness reports, the man allegedly drove his car from Friedrichsring into the several hundred meters long main shopping street and hit or ran over several pedestrians at the level of Paradeplatz. A carnival market with dozens of food stalls and rides is currently taking place on the Planken and around the water tower.

According to the police, the shopping street was not secured with bollards or barriers. There was no particular reason for this. "It was a completely normal day in the city life of Mannheim," said Police President Schäfer, noting that there was no special event scheduled there on Monday. There is tram traffic on the so-called Planken, and there is also the possibility for delivery traffic to enter the street.

In the evening, top politicians from the federal and state levels visited the crime scene. Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann expressed his condolences to the victims and their families. "This is really hard to bear and endure," he said. He assured the citizens that the state is doing everything it can to protect them. But there can be no one hundred percent protection. "Sometimes it is just tragic and terrible."

Strobl: "We Cannot Turn Our City Centers into Fortresses"

Absolute security will never be possible, Strobl also said. "We also cannot turn our city centers into fenced fortresses." The act is part of several crimes in recent history where a car has been misused as a weapon.

Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser thanked the police and rescue forces. "The police did an outstanding job," she said in the evening after having assessed the situation on site. About 30 police officers were on site within ten minutes, Faeser said.

Now it is important to let the investigative authorities do their work. It was a terrible act, "a horror in broad daylight, in the best weather, during lunch break, when many people are outside."

Several Carnival Parades Canceled on Tuesday

After the fatal drive, several carnival parades planned for Tuesday in Baden-Württemberg were canceled. According to the city, the carnival parades planned for Tuesday in the suburbs of Feudenheim, Neckarau, and Sandhofen in Mannheim were canceled. The so-called carnival market at the water tower was closed, and the street carnival in the city center did not take place, the city reported.

The cities of Heidelberg and Schwetzingen in the Rhein-Neckar district are also affected. In Weinheim on the Bergstraße (also Rhein-Neckar district), the so-called marketplace carnival is canceled, as confirmed by the municipality. In Heidelberg, the clubs united in the Heidelberg Carnival Committee and the city agreed on the step in a crisis meeting. Schwetzingen is located west of Heidelberg.

The case brings back memories of several attacks where vehicles drove into crowds in recent weeks. In December, six people lost their lives in Magdeburg when a now 50-year-old doctor sped through the Christmas market. In mid-February, a man drove his vehicle into a group of demonstrators in Munich. A young woman and a child lost their lives in the incident.

Case Brings Back Memories of Attack on Mannheim Marketplace

At the end of May last year, the suspected Islamist Sulaiman A. injured five participants of a rally by the Islam-critical citizens' movement Pax Europa (BPE) and a police officer with a knife on the Mannheim marketplace. The 29-year-old police officer Rouven Laur later succumbed to his injuries. Another officer shot the attacker down.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office assumes that the accused has sympathies for the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS). The alleged perpetrator is currently on trial in Stuttgart.

Mannheim is located in the north of Baden-Württemberg on the border with Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. With around 320,000 inhabitants, the city is the second largest in Baden-Württemberg.

(APA/Red)

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