WORLD NEWS: ONE DEAD, SEVERAL HURT AS CAR HITS CROWD IN GERMAN CITY

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According to authorities, a car crashed into a crowd in Mannheim, Germany, on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring multiple others. One suspect was also taken into custody.

A damaged automobile with a smashed front window was spotted in the inner city, and armed police closed the area. Since December, eight people have been killed in two automobile ramming assaults in other cities. Last May, a police officer was killed and five others were injured in a stabbing attack that occurred in Mannheim during an anti-Islam rally.

The most recent event was not classified as an attack by the police, but they did report that a suspected “perpetrator” had been taken into custody after the vehicle was driven through a retail centre at approximately 12:15 p.m. (1115 GMT).

“We can now confirm that a car was driven into a pedestrian zone and that one person was killed,” said police spokesman Stefan Wilhelm, adding that several people were injured.

“We can confirm that one suspect was arrested,” he said, adding that “the investigation is continuing”.

Wilhelm said residents had been urged “to avoid the inner city area” amid the major police operation. Officers with heavy weapons cordoned off the area and police helicopters were seen in the air.

Two people were killed and twenty-five injured in the event, according to the Bild daily, which also featured images of ambulances close to the city’s famous water tower.

Children’s shoes were strewn among the rubble on the ground, and “at least one person is lying covered under a tarpaulin,” according to an NTV news reporter on the site.

The neighbourhood was mostly evacuated, and police urged citizens to stay indoors and avoid the city core.

Through its catastrophe warning app, the state interior ministry of Baden-Württemberg had alerted the populace to a “life-threatening situation.”

A disaster alert was issued by the university hospital’s intensive care unit in Mannheim.

Numerous violent incidents, such as carjackings and stabbing sprees, have occurred in German cities and have been attributed to asylum seekers.

A two-year-old child and her mother were killed last month when a man crashed his car into a trade union protest in Munich, a city in the south.

Six people were killed and hundreds were injured in a car-ramming attack that targeted a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg in December.

Last May, a police officer was killed and five others were injured in a knife attack at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim.