This is the moment terrified shoppers ran away screaming after a car ploughed into a crowd of people in Mannheim, leaving two dead and at least 25 injured.
Shaky footage shows dozens of people rapidly leaving buildings and dashing down the roads in the German city after the horrific incident.
Shoppers desperately fled the scene in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim after two people were killed and 25 had been injured, 15 of them seriously, German newspaper Bild reported.
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’ and police everywhere, even on the roofs.
Bild reported the driver of the car, believed to be German, was arrested and has since been taken to hospital with injuries. Police also confirmed that the suspect had been identified and arrested this afternoon.
A police spokesperson at the scene told Welt that they could not yet rule out a second attack, but almost all streets and bridges leading out of the city are being controlled by police with submachine guns, while a helicopter circles over Mannheim.
Footage shows dozens of people fleeing a major incident in Mannheim, Germany today
The clip captured shoppers making the mad dash down the street to flee the scene
Police investigators check a damaged car at the scene after a vehicle was driven to pedestrians in Mannheim
Emergency services and police stand at Paradeplatz in Mannheim, Germany, after a serious incident, Monday March 3, 2025
Your browser does not support iframes.
The city center should be avoided ‘on a large scale,’ the police wrote in a post on Twitter/X.
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.
Mannheim’s University Hospital meanwhile said that it was preparing for a possible mass accident with multiple casualties, according to Welt.
Eight trauma teams have been brought together for both adult and child potential victims of the incident.
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.’
Police would not disclose what prompted the large law enforcement presence in the city center but a spokesperson said the incident had been reported as ‘a life-threatening deployment situation.’
Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm told n-tv television that an ‘incident’ occurred at around 12:15 p.m. in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim that triggered a large police deployment. He said he couldn’t give details.
Authorities pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city’s downtown area due to a big police deployment.
Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires.
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.
At least 39 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.
A general view shows the scene after a SUV vehicle was driven into pedestrians in Mannheim, Germany, 03 March 2025
Mounted police patrol near the scene after a car drove into a crowd, in Mannheim, Germany
Emergency workers stand by during a major operation in the city center of Mannheim, Germany
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 Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, when a 28-year-old man 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 incident in Mannheim was a deliberate attack.
Mannheim, population 326,000, lies about 85 kilometers (52 miles) south of Frankfurt.
dailymail,news,Germany
#Moment #terrified #shoppers #run #screaming #car #ploughs #crowd #Mannheim #killing #leaving #dozens #injured
