A vehicle has crashed into a crowd in Mannheim, with the suspicion of an attack. The police have closed two bridges in the direction of Ludwigshafen. According to unconfirmed reports, the suspect has been arrested and was allegedly armed.
The incident allegedly involved a black SUV, which drove at high speed from the Paradeplatz towards the Wasserturm, hitting a group of pedestrians. The inner city, where the Fasnacht market has been taking place since Thursday, has been completely cordoned off. Local newspaper Mannheimer Morgen reported shortly after the incident of at least one fatality, which has since been confirmed by the police. News outlet Bild, however, reports of two dead and 25, some of whom are seriously injured.
“It’s terrible here, nobody knows what happened, you only see the injured and the dead and you don’t know what to do” a fair vendor is quoted as saying. The intensive care unit of the university clinic has reportedly been put on high alert and the inner city is completely sealed off, with the interior ministry of Baden-Württemberg urging citizens to avoid the area via a warning app. Whether the planned Fasnacht events for Tuesday will be cancelled is still unknown.
According to local residents, the previous night’s Fasnacht procession was still protected by concrete barriers, which have since been removed.
A warning – this is a very intense video:
This is the third such incident in as many months. If this turns out to be a similar attack to the one in Munich, the new video from Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, wishing for a peaceful and free Ramadan, might not be well-received by many people: “so that we can live together in peace and freedom here”.