MANNHEIM, Germany (AFP) — A man drove a car into a crowd in Germany on Monday, killing two people and seriously injuring five, police said, adding that a 40-year-old German suspect was arrested at the scene.

Politicians and police treated the rampage in the southwestern city of Mannheim as a suspected deliberate act after Germany was shocked by two deadly car-ramming attacks since late last year.

Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that “once again we mourn with the relatives of the victims of a senseless act of violence and fear for the injured.”

“We cannot accept this,” he added.

The driver plowed a small black Ford passenger vehicle through a downtown pedestrian shopping area around 12:15 p.m. local time (1:15 p.m. Jerusalem time) where a carnival market was located with dozens of food stalls, rides, and games.

“It’s heartbreaking,” cafe owner Kasim Timur, 57, was quoted as telling news site Der Spiegel, adding that one of his staff had seen seriously injured people, among them children.

Police with heavy weapons soon shut down and evacuated the inner city as helicopters flew overhead and citizens were told to stay indoors via warning apps during the “life-threatening situation.”

With the sole suspect arrested and being treated in hospital, police later said that “at the current stage of the investigation, there is no suspicion of a political background.”

Baden-Wuerttemberg state’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said the suspect........

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