TRANSCRIPT
Two people have died and ten others injured - five of them seriously - after a car drove into a crowd in Mannheim, south-west Germany.
A 40-year-old German man has been arrested, and police are considering charging him with two counts of murder.
Authorities say there is no indication of an extremist motivation for the suspect in the fatal crash at this stage.
Nancy Faeser is the country's Interior Minister. Speaking on site, she offers her condolences to the relatives of the deceased.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, what a terrible act of violence here in Mannheim, Mannheim again. I am incredibly sorry. I have already expressed my sympathies and condolences to the Lord Mayor. And, of course, we would like to do the same again here together for the relatives of the two people killed here in Mannheim today, in the pedestrian zone. We remember them and we wish those who were seriously injured a speedy recovery and, hopefully, a full recovery."
She describes the attack as a horror in broad daylight.
"It is a terrible act, I have said it - a horror in broad daylight, in the most beautiful weather during the lunch break, when many people are outside, in the middle of a pedestrian zone. This is simply an unimaginably terrible act that happened here. And I'm sure that the investigating authorities, who have just kept us up to date, will do everything they can at the police headquarters here in Mannheim to solve the crime."
Security has been a key concern in Germany following a string of violent attacks in recent weeks.
This includes deadly car rammings in Magdeburg in December and in Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May last year.
Police were on high alert for this year's carnival parades after social media accounts linked to the IS group called for attacks on the events in Cologne and Nuremberg.
Carnival reveller Thekla says she was wary but choose to celebrate consciously.
"I've sometimes had a bit of a queasy feeling and looked at how the street here is secured. That's right, I did that. But I also don't like to be put off. That's why I celebrate consciously, in the knowledge that this can also be a difficult situation."
German Prosecutor Romeo Schluessler says the investigation is ongoing.
"In the beginning it was not yet clear whether it was an extremist perpetrator or whether there was a political motive. According to what we know so far, we can rule out the possibility that it was a politically motivated act. Instead, we have concrete indications that the perpetrator was mentally ill. That is why the investigation is concentrating on this aspect."
He says they obtained and executed a search warrant for the perpetrator's home quite quickly.
The suspect had a previous conviction from 2018 where he was convicted of far-right hate speech after making a comment on a Facebook picture.
It is understood that the suspect shot himself in the mouth after driving into the crowd and was in hospital in a stable condition.
Mr Schluessler says at this stage there isn't further evidence of any other political attitudes.
Local media report Mannheim University Hospital says they are treating three people, two adults and a child.
The other injured people were taken to different hospitals in the region.
Baden-Wuerttemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl says, the offence comes soon after several recent crimes in the country.
"This offence is one of several recent crimes in which a car has been misused as a weapon, so to speak. The police arrived on the scene after an extremely short response time and dealt with the situation. After just a few minutes, large police forces were already at the scene."
He says they have no indication of an extremist or religious background.
"As far as the specific motivation for the offense is concerned, we have no indication of an extremist or religious background at the moment. The motivation could rather be rooted in the perpetrator himself. But that is the subject of the ongoing investigation."
The incident comes as Germany celebrates “Rose Monday” - a carnival held before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
