Car-ramming incident kills at least two people in Germany

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A car has been driven into a crowd in the German city of Leipzig killing at least two people.

Police said the driver had been arrested and was “no longer considered a threat,” but offered no additional details. Emergency services declared a mass casualty incident.

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At least 20 people are reported to have been “affected” in the eastern state of Saxony.

The city’s mayor, Burkhard ⁠Jung, told journalists at the scene: “We don’t know the motivation. We don’t know ⁠anything about the culprit”.

Emergency services, including the fire brigade, ambulances and police, were at the scene in Grimmaische Strasse, a street that leads into central Leipzig’s shopping area.

Radio Leipzig reported that a damaged ‌Volkswagen SUV with a person on top had been seen speeding through a pedestrian zone.

The broadcaster quoted witnesses as saying there were several bodies covered with sheets, as well as ⁠a stabbing victim.

Leipzig is one of the biggest cities in eastern Germany with a population of 630,000.

Like other European countries, Germany ⁠has had a spate of car-ramming and stabbing ⁠attacks in recent years, some were religious or politically motivated, other attackers had mental health issues.

Last year, two people were ⁠killed in the western city of Mannheim, when a 40-year-old man drove a car ⁠into a group of pedestrians. Weeks earlier, a similar attack on a trade union demonstration in Munich killed two and injured more than 40, including many children.

In December 2024, several people were ‌killed in a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. That came months after a ‌stabbing ‌attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen.