Police operation in Mannheim: Car drives into a crowd – a dead and arrest

In Mannheim, a car drove to a group of people in the city center on Rose Monday. A person died, as the police said in the afternoon. There are also injuries. For the time being, the police were unable to provide any more detailed information on the number and the seriousness of the injuries.

As the police said, a suspect was determined and arrested. The police do not assume that there are other accomplices, so there is probably no further danger to the population. For the time being, there is no further, secure information – especially about the motive for the crime. The police warn of false reports on the Internet and asks witnesses not to share videos on social media.

Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) wanted to get a picture of the location on site in the afternoon, a government spokesman said.

According to police, the incident occurred at 12.15 p.m. at the central Paradeplatz. The police and rescue workers are in large -scale deployment, heavily armed police officers stopped paradise and large parts of the city center. A helicopter was also in use.

According to media reports, the vehicle is said to have driven from Friedrichsring to the city center in the direction of Planner's shopping street. A carnival market will take place there until Tuesday. A witness who worked as a craftsman nearby at the time of the crime said the FAZ that he saw the black car from the water tower towards the paradise. “It was very quickly,” he said.

According to the police, the situation has not yet been clarified. One could not rule out that there is another danger situation, said a police spokesman on site. He called on the population to avoid the urban area. Citizens should be in closed rooms. The inner city area was cleared. Among other things, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior warned the population of a “life-threatening situation” via Warnapp Katwarn.

The investigation was in full swing, said a police spokesman. One cannot yet provide information about a possible perpetrator or background. It was still unclear in the early afternoon whether the driver drove to the stalls and the crowd.

Psychological support is to be set up on site, the police said. This is supposed to supply the person directly involved. Also set up a notice telephone and a witness collection point.

The top of the city and the Mannheim police evaluate the situation at the hour in a crisis discussion. The Mayor Christian Specht (CDU) and Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (both CDU) were also involved in the talks.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) demolished her participation in the Rosenmontagszug in Cologne prematurely due to the events. The minister is continuously taught, a spokesman said. “The rescue of human life, care for injuries and the first investigation by the authorities in Mannheim are now in the foreground,” he added.

According to its own statements, the university clinic has prepared for a possible mass accident with injuries. In the clinic, the disaster and operational plan was immediately implemented, with which the care of injuries is prepared. A total of eight trauma teams were provided, both for adults and children.

After the accident or attack in the city center of Mannheim, a total of three affected people have been treated in the university clinic. The two adults and the child were classified with high medical urgency and were cared for acute medicine, the clinic said.

“Shifting operations that had not yet started were immediately taken from the operating plan to create additional surgery capacities,” it said. The capacities on the intensive care units were also reinforced.

In the past few weeks there had been several attacks in which vehicles had driven into a crowd. In December, six people died in Magdeburg when a 50 -year -old doctor had raced through the Christmas market. In mid -February, a man had driven his vehicle to a group of demonstrators in Munich. A young woman and a child died.

Mannheim is located in the north of Baden-Württemberg on the border with Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. With around 320,000 inhabitants, the city is the second largest city of Baden-Württemberg.