The Carnera driver the car in a crowd in Germany, leaving 2 dead and 11 injured

Berlin – A driver put a car in a crowd on Monday in the German city of the southwest of Mannheim, and the authorities said two people were killed and another 11 wounds, five of them severely.

A 40-year-old German from the near Rhine-Palatinated state was arrested and in a hospital after being injured, the interior minister of the state, Thomas Strobl of Baden-Württemberg, where Mannheim is located, said the German news agency DPA.

Later he told reporters in Mannheim that “with regard to the specific motivation of the crime, we have no indications of an extremist or religious background at this time.” The motivation could be based on the person of perpetrator himself. “

The German police and prosecutors said Monday at a joint press conference that the driver intentionally put his car in people and is being investigated for murder and attempted murder.

They said the driver shot in his mouth when he was arrested and had to undergo medical treatment in a hospital. It couldn’t be questioned yet.

Researchers are investigating the possibility that the driver may suffer psychological problems.

Automobiles have been used as mortal weapons in several acts of violence in recent months in Germany.

The police said that “the indications of a second author cannot be confirmed at this stage of the investigation.” They said there was no more danger to the public.

Police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm said a driver led people in Paradepatz, a pedestrian street in the center, around noon, when workers come to lunch. Local media reported that a carnival market was being carried out, which means more visitors than usual in Mannheim, with a population of 326,000.

The Hospital of the University of Mannheim said they were treating three people, two adults and a child, DPA reported. Other injured people were taken to different hospitals in the region.

The images of the scene showed parts of the city center cordoned off, with a strong police presence. The officers gathered around a very damaged black car.

Friedrich Merz, who will probably become the next German chancellor, wrote in X that “the incident, as well as the terrible acts of recent months, is an urgent reminder that we must do everything possible to avoid such acts.” The outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote in X that “we cried with the families of the victims of an act of meaningless violence.”

Last month, a 2 -year -old girl and her mother died two days after they were injured in a cars attack against a manifestation of the union in Munich. A 24 -year -old Afghan man who arrived in Germany as asylum applicant was arrested, and prosecutors said he seemed to have an Islamic extremist motive.

Last year, six people died and more than 200 wounds when a car crashed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-musulm views and support for the extreme right-right anti-immigrant alternative for the German party.

___

The writers of Associated Press Geir Moulson and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed.