The driver plowed into people in a busy pedestrian shopping area in central Leipzig, leaving two people dead on Monday afternoon, according to authorities. Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung said three additional people were seriously injured, while an unspecified number of other people sustained less serious injuries.
Officials said the attack took place in the city center around 5 p.m. Police detained the driver in the vehicle. Police said the driver was a 33-year-old German citizen and a German-born resident of the Leipzig area.
Saxony state prosecutors said the man is under investigation on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors did not provide details about a possible motive, saying there was no immediate word on what drove the attack.
Police chief René Demmler said the driver traveled from Augustusplatz, a major square, along Grimmaische Strasse into the city’s central pedestrianized shopping area. Demmler said there was no longer any danger after the attack and that the driver was arrested without resistance.
Saxony Interior Minister Armin Schuster said investigators believe the man acted alone. Schuster said investigators often consider “rage and psychological instability” in similar cases, but he added that he would not speculate about whether those factors applied to this attack.
Saxony state Gov. Michael Kretschmer expressed condolences to the families of the victims and said, through remarks carried by German news agency dpa, that “An act like this leaves us speechless — and it makes us determined.” Kretschmer also said authorities would “do everything in our power” to solve the case quickly and completely.
Photographs from the scene showed a car with a battered front and a shattered windshield after the incident. Leipzig is located southwest of Berlin and has more than 630,000 inhabitants.