A car has rammed into crowds in the centre of the German city of Mannheim, killing two people and injuring several others, in what police described as a deliberate attack.
Police said they had arrested a man, the driver of a black Ford Fiesta, who was reportedly being treated for his injuries in hospital under tight police protection. Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of Baden-Württemberg state, said the suspect was a 40-year-old German man from the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was believed to have acted alone.
Investigators later said there were “concrete indications” that the man had mental health problems, and ruled out a “politically motivated act”.
The victims were identified as an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man.
Witnesses described people lying on the ground at the scene near the central pedestrianised Paradeplatz after the car ploughed into the crowd, heading in the direction of a water tower. Attempts were being made to resuscitate at least two people.
German police and prosecutors said the driver intentionally rammed his car into the crowds celebrating carnival before the fasting season of Lent.
He was then blocked by a taxi driver who witnessed the attack from a cafe where he was taking a break, jumped into his car and drove into the path of the Ford Fiesta, according to local media reports.
The attacker shot at the taxi driver with what is believed to have been an alarm pistol, but did not injure him. He then fled on foot before he was caught by police, injuring himself with a shot from the alarm pistol.
The man, a landscape gardener according to police, is being investigated for murder and attempted murder.
The incident follows a string of violent attacks including two other car rammings, in Munich last month and in Magdeburg in December. Mannheim was the scene of a stabbing in May 2024 in which a police officer was killed and five people wounded.
All those attacks were carried out by migrants, fuelling a heated debate over the country’s immigration policy before Germany’s general election last month. The vote was won by the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which campaigned on promises to tighten border controls, while the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland came second with its best ever result.
Germany’s carnival season culminates in Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), with crowds in fancy dress and parades of floats that typically feature comical and satirical displays of events dominating current affairs. Mannheim held its main parade on Sunday.
Security forces had alerted carnival organisers and the public more than a week ago about warnings published on social media accounts connected to the militant group Islamic State, calling for followers to carry out attacks in the carnival strongholds of the Rhineland, to which Mannheim belongs, and areas in the south – both Catholic regions.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, who had been due to attend a popular parade in Cologne on Monday, cancelled her attendance to travel to Mannheim instead, a spokesperson said.
Friedrich Merz, who is likely to be Germany’s next chancellor, wrote on X that “the incident – as well as the terrible acts of the past few months – is an urgent reminder that we must do everything we can to prevent such acts”. The outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, referred to the stabbing attack of last year, writing on X: “Once again we mourn with Mannheim. Once again we mourn with the families of the victims of a senseless act of violence.”
Kasim Timur, 57, who runs a cafe on Paradeplatz, told Der Spiegel: “It breaks one’s heart.” He said one of his colleagues had reported seeing some of the seriously injured, including children. Another colleague, on her way to work at the cafe, had seen a dark-coloured Ford car racing towards Paradeplatz, he said.
“Initially she thought it was someone who had caused an accident and fled the scene,” he said. “Only later did she understand what had happened.” Timur said the city had not yet got over the stabbing attack of less than a year ago. “Now the horror is back,” he told Spiegel. “That is very scary.”
According to media reports, three people were receiving emergency treatment at University Hospital Mannheim, including two adults and a child. Eight medical trauma teams had been put on standby to treat adults and children, according to the hospital.
Police urged people not to post videos from the attack, or to spread information that had not been officially confirmed, warning of numerous “false reports” that were circulating on social media.
