A car has reportedly driven into a crowd of people in the western German city of Mannheim, causing casualties, local media reported today.
According to the Mannheim24 news website, a black car drove at high speed into people, traveling from the centrally located Paradeplatz square towards the city’s landmark water tower. The report mentioned that several people were severely injured in the incident.
At least one person was killed during the incident, DW reported this afternoon, citing local media.
A reporter from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur agency noted that one person was sighted lying under a tarpaulin at the scene. It remained unclear whether the individual had sustained injuries or was fatally wounded.
Several people were seen lying on the ground in the aftermath, with two people apparently being resuscitated, an eye witness told Reuters.
An eyewitness who was present at a restaurant on Paradeplatz during the event recounted the chaos. He informed Welt that ‘all hell broke loose’ but stated that he did not witness the actual crash, only observing ‘people running away in panic’ following the incident.
The incident occurred as crowds gathered in cities across regions including Germany’s Rhineland for parades to mark the carnival season.
Police were on high alert for this year’s carnival parades after social media accounts connected to ISIS called for attacks on the events in Cologne and Nuremberg.
Emergency services and police stand at Paradeplatz in Mannheim, Germany, after a serious incident, Monday March 3, 2025
Images from social media claimed to show a major incident in Mannheim, Germany today
Emergency services and police stand at Paradeplatz in Mannheim, Germany, after a serious incident, Monday March 3
Police officers stand by during a major operation at the city center in Mannheim, Germany
Mannheim police said in a statement on Monday: ‘There is currently a police operation in Mannheim city center, in the area around Wasserturm/Plankenkopf.
‘Police and rescue services are on their way. Further information is not yet available. In this context, there may be temporary traffic disruptions in the city centre.’
Police would not disclose what prompted the large law enforcement presence in the city center but a spokesperson said the incident had been reported as ‘a life-threatening deployment situation.’
Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm told n-tv television that an ‘incident’ occurred at around 12:15 p.m. in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim that triggered a large police deployment. He said he couldn’t give details.
Authorities 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, militant attacks or fires.
Security has been a key concern in Germany following a string of violent attacks in recent weeks, including deadly car rammings in Magdeburg in December and in Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May 2024.
Mannheim was blighted by a mass stabbing when a man ambushed and attacked several people at a rally hosted by the anti-Islam Citizen’s Movement Pax Europe group.
At least 39 people, including a two-year-old child, were also injured in Munich last month when a man drove a car into a crowd of 1,000 strikers.
Footage from the scene captured the moment the driver was arrested, as cops swarmed the vehicle and pinned him to the ground.
File photo. Mannheim police near the scene where several people were attacked in 2024
It came just weeks after a car drove into a group of people at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing at least six and injuring nearly 70.
In December, the country was also rocked by an attack in Bavaria, when an Afghan asylum seeker allegedly stabbed a two-year-old boy and a passerby to death in a German park. Two people were killed and three injured, police said.
There was no initial suggestion Monday’s attack in Mannheim was a deliberate attack.
Mannheim, population 326,000, lies about 85 kilometers (52 miles) south of Frankfurt.
