On Monday, March 3, a driver crashed into a crowd in Mannheim, Germany, killing at least one person and injuring several others. Police confirmed that one suspect has been arrested, and armed officers have cordoned off the inner city. A damaged car, with its front window shattered, was seen at the scene.
Though the police have not classified the incident as an attack, they noted that the car was driven through a shopping area around 12:15 p.m. (1115 GMT), and a suspect was apprehended. Police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm confirmed that one person had been killed and several others injured.
“We can confirm that a car was driven into a pedestrian zone, and one person died,” Wilhelm said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. He urged residents to avoid the inner-city area as a large-scale police operation continued, with officers armed with heavy weapons and helicopters flying overhead.
Initial reports from local media outlets, including Bild, stated that two people had died, and 25 others were injured. Images from the scene showed ambulances near Mannheim’s historical water tower, and a reporter from NTV described the heartbreaking sight of at least one person covered under a tarp, with children’s shoes scattered across the debris.
In response to the situation, the Baden-Wuerttemberg state interior ministry issued a disaster warning through its app, alerting the public to a “life-threatening situation.” Mannheim’s university hospital also declared a disaster alert in light of the incident.
This tragic event marks the third car-ramming attack in Germany within three months. Previous attacks include a 2015 incident in Munich, where a car targeted a trade union demonstration, killing a mother and her child, and a 2024 attack in Magdeburg, where a car rammed into a Christmas market, leaving six dead and hundreds injured.