At least one person has been killed and several others have been injured after a car rammed into pedestrians in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, local police said Monday.
The incident occurred shortly after midday local time (6 a.m. ET), said Stefan Wilhelm, a spokesperson for Mannheim police. A suspect has been arrested, he added.
Germany’s federal government issued an “extreme danger” warning in the city and said a large-scale police operation is underway.
Germany has been rocked by a string of deadly car ramming attacks in recent months.
In December, a vehicle plowed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people, including a 9-year-old boy. The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who had lived in Germany for more than a decade and worked to help Saudis leave his home country. Social media posts showed he was a fervent critic of Islam.
In February, a person drove a Mini Cooper into demonstrators in Munich, killing a mother and her child and injuring more than 30 others. The suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan man.
That attack came on the eve of the Munich Security Conference and just days before the country’s federal election, where concerns over immigration and security helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to second place.
Monday’s attack comes as Germany celebrates “Rose Monday,” a carnival held before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
