1 Dead, Several Injured in Latest Car Ramming Attack in Germany

A suspect is in custody after ramming their car into a crowded market in Mannheim, Germany, on Monday.

No information about the suspect has been released so far, but eyewitnesses told the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper that the suspect drove from a water tower near the market to the parade ground, ramming into multiple people.

“As part of the search measures that were immediately initiated, a suspect was identified and arrested. No further, reliable information can currently be released beyond the information published so far,” Mannheim Police said, according to NBC News.

Police didn’t provide further information on the number of people injured or the severity of their injuries.

The attack took place at a carnival market that opened on Thursday. Attendees were enjoying food stalls, rides, and games when the attack occurred. None of the vendors or employees of the carnival were injured in the attack, according to initial information from the Morgen.

One eyewitness told the outlet that the driver rammed into barricades and hit multiple people. One person was found dead among those barricades.

“It is terrible here, nobody knows what happened, you only see injured people and the dead, and you don’t know what to do,” one employee told the outlet.

The attack comes just two weeks after an Afghan national rammed his vehicle into a crowd in Munich, Germany, killing two people — including a small child — and injuring dozens more.

“The suspect is a 24-year-old man of Afghan nationality,” Munich Police said in a statement after the incident. “He drove a car into a gathering in the Seidlstrasse area from behind.”

The suspect in that case was believed to have an extremist background and was “known to the police for drug and theft offenses,” according to the German publication Bild.

Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder said at the time that the ramming was being treated as “an attack.”

“The attack shows that something has to change in Germany – and quickly!” he said.

Less than two months before the Munich attack, a Saudi national killed at least six people and injured more than 200 others after ramming his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. Saudi Arabia had repeatedly warned Germany that the man had extremist views, providing their first warning back in 2007, one year after the man entered Germany. In 2007 and 2008, Saudi Arabia requested that the man be extradited to his home country, but Germany didn’t oblige.