This is the terrifying moment a car sped past pedestrians moments before fatally ploughing into a crowd of people in the German city of Mannheim.
CCTV footage captured a chilling incident in western Germany where a black car plowed into a crowd of people, resulting in two fatalities and at least 11 individuals sustaining injuries. The footage shows the car speeding through the city streets as pedestrians react in horror, with one person narrowly avoiding being hit by leaping out of the way.
Seconds later the small black Ford smashed into a crowd in the city centre.
Terrified witnesses in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim scrambled to safety after the tragic event unfolded. The car barreled into the group, claiming the lives of an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
Police said 11 people have been injured, five of whom are in serious condition, after it was initially reported that 25 people had been injured.
Earlier shaky footage shows dozens of people rapidly leaving buildings and dashing down the roads in the German city after the horrific incident.
Several people were seen lying on the ground in the aftermath, with two people apparently being resuscitated, an eye witness told Reuters.
During a press conference, Andreas Stenger, President of the State Criminal Police Office, revealed that the suspected driver, a 40-year-old German man, resorted to a drastic act moments after being apprehended. Reports from local newspaper Mannheim24 indicate that the individual shot himself in the mouth, adding another layer of tragedy to the already distressing situation.
The man reportedly used a blank round and is currently being treated in hospital. His condition is thought to be stable.
The public prosecutor told local media that there are indications that the perpetrator is mentally ill.
The man, said to be working as a gardener, deliberately drove into the group of people in Mannheim and tried to hit them, police president Ulrike Schaefer told Mannheim24.
The alleged perpetrator had been previously jailed for causing bodily harm, police said, adding that the man had also been caught driving under the influence ten years ago.
His latest conviction was in 2018, when he had to pay a fine for a hateful comment on Facebook.
A witness, sitting at a restaurant on Paradeplatz at the time, told Welt that ‘all hell broke loose’.
He said he did not see the crash, but ‘people running away in panic’ and police everywhere, even on the roofs.
Authorities revealed this afternoon that they had arrested a 40-year-old German man after the incident. Reports have stated that the suspect was believed to be armed and was arrested around 30 minutes after the deadly attack.
‘At the current stage of the investigation, the perpetrator is a lone perpetrator who has already been arrested. Evidence of a second perpetrator cannot be confirmed at this time. There is currently no danger to the population!,’ Mannheim Police wrote in a post to X.
A police spokesperson at the scene told Welt that they could not yet rule out a second attack, but almost all streets and bridges leading out of the city are being controlled by police with submachine guns, while a helicopter circles over Mannheim.
The city center should be avoided ‘on a large scale,’ the police wrote in a post on Twitter/X.
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.
Mannheim’s University Hospital meanwhile said that it was preparing for a possible mass accident with multiple casualties, according to Welt.
Eight trauma teams have been brought together for both adult and child potential victims of the incident.
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.
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 Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, when a 28-year-old man 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 incident in Mannheim was a deliberate attack.
Mannheim, population 326,000, lies about 85 kilometers (52 miles) south of Frankfurt.
