Two killed and many injured after car driven into crowd in German city of Leipzig

Two people are dead and several others injured after a car drove into a crowd in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Monday afternoon, local authorities said.

Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung said the suspected perpetrator - who authorities have confirmed is a 33-year-old German citizen - was arrested. Jung added that authorities were not yet clear about a motive.

Police confirmed a car had struck several people in the central Grimmaische Straße area before driving off. Authorities said 22 people were injured, including three seriously.

Michael Kretschmer, the head of the state of Saxony, of which Leipzig is a part, said the suspect previously suffered from mental illness.

"We are utterly stunned by what has happened. A man has driven at high speed into the shopping area. We are currently mourning two deaths, three people with serious injuries and many others who have been injured," Jung said.

"It is impossible to find the right words to describe this horrific rampage."

Lepzig police spokesperson, Susanne Luebcke, said that at about 17:35 (15:35 GMT) "a person drove a vehicle across Augustusplatz into Grimmaische Street, continuing on past the market".

"Several people were injured in the incident. Unfortunately, we also have to report two fatalities," she added.

"We are talking about a case of violent rampage here. We are working on the assumption that this was the act of a lone perpetrator and currently have no indications that there is still a threat to public safety."

The Leipzig's public prosecutor's office confirmed the deceased were a 63-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man, both German citizens.

It said they are investigating the suspect for murder and attempted murder, and that there was "no basis on current knowledge" to suggest there was either a religious or political motive involved.

AFP via Getty Images

One eyewitness, Susi, told Radio Leipzig that she was with her friend on a bench on Grimmaische Straße at the time of the incident.

"We heard a loud bang," she said, adding that the driver was going "really fast".

Susi and her friend took refuge in a jewellery shop nearby. When they came out of the store, she said she saw injured people lying on the ground.

Another eyewitness told the same outlet that the car came to a halt at some bollards and a woman fell from the roof of a car. They said passersby went to administer first aid and about 15 people gathered around the car to apprehend the driver and tried to drag him out through an open window.

The eyewitness said the driver tried to escape through a passenger window, but police arrived at the scene and secured his hands with cable ties.

Grimmaische Straße remained cordoned off on Tuesday, as some residents placed flowers and lit candles for the victims of the attack. One woman sat on a kerb, drawing a picture of a flower, which she laid among the tributes.

"It's just a matter of luck that I wasn't right in the middle of it," says Doris, who was walking nearby with her granddaughter only half an hour before the car drove into the crowd.

"I'm not so fast as young people are. The people who died were also older people… It is bad."

Manuela, another local, told the BBC that the community is "shocked and frightened that something like this could happen".

"Normally the market here would be full, with lots of people, movement and activity. Today everything is different."

A police tent was set up around the site where the vehicle came to a halt, just opposite one of Leipzig's most popular tourist attractions, St Thomas Church, where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach is buried.

Germany has seen a series of car ramming attacks in recent years.

In December 2024, at least six people were killed and more than 300 were wounded following an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg.

In February last year, at least 30 people were injured when a car was driven into a crowd in Munich, more than a week before the country's federal elections.

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