Car smashes into crowd of pedestrians in Mannheim leaving ‘at least one dead and multiple injured’

A car has reportedly driven into a crowd of people in the western German city of Mannheim, causing casualties, local media reported today.

A black car drove at high speed into people, travelling from the centrally located Paradeplatz square towards the city’s landmark water tower, the Mannheim24 news website reported, adding that several people were severely injured. 

At least one person was killed during the incident, DW reported this afternoon, citing local media. 

One person was also seen lying under a tarpaulin on site, according to a reporter for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur agency. It was unclear whether they had been injured or killed.

Several people were seen lying on the ground in the aftermath, with two people apparently being resuscitated, an eye witness told Reuters.

Another 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’.

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. 

Images from social media claimed to show a major incident in Mannheim, Germany today

Emergency services and police stand at Paradeplatz in Mannheim, Germany, after a serious incident, Monday March 3

Police officers stand by during a major operation at the city center in Mannheim, Germany

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.’

‘There is debris everywhere,’ German tabloid Bild added.

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.

Two people were killed and at least 36 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. 

File photo. Mannheim police near the scene where several people were attacked in 2024

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 Bavaria, when an Afghan asylum seeker allegedly 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 attack in Mannheim was a deliberate attack. 

In August of last year, Germany was shaken by an attack in Solingen, in which three people were killed and eight were injured.