At least 2 killed, 22 injured after car driven into shoppers in Germanynewsline24

May 5 (UPI) — At least two people were killed and 22 were injured, three seriously, after a car was driven into a crowd in the German city of Leipzig, 100 miles southeast of Berlin, authorities said.

A 33-year-old man, who is a German citizen, was arrested by police after the suspect’s car allegedly struck people gathered late Monday afternoon in the downtown Grimmaische Strasse area and failed to stop, said Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung.

“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. It is impossible to find the right words to describe this horrific rampage,” said Jung.

Police said they were treating the incident as a “violent rampage” but said there was no wider threat.

“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,” said Leipzig police spokesperson Susanne Luebcke.

Witnesses said the vehicle, a Volkswagen SUV, turned into the pedestrianized shopping district of Grimmaische Street and drove at high speed for about 550 yards toward Naschmarkt Square, ploughing into people before crashing into security bollards restricting traffic from entering the area.

One witness told the BBC that after the Volkswagen crashed, they saw a woman fall from the roof of a car, but it was unclear if it was the suspect’s vehicle or if the woman had ended up on the roof of a different car.

The suspect was due to appear in court on Tuesday with the Leipzig prosecutor’s office expected to charge him with murder of a 63-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man and attempted murder.

Prosecutors said they believed the suspect acted alone and while there was as yet no clear evidence as to why he allegedly carried out the attack, all the indications were that it was not politically or religiously motivated.

The suspect had a history of mental illness, according to Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer.

Germany has seen a spate of deadly car ramming incidents over the past 18 months that began when a car drove into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg in December 2024, killing six people and injuring 200.

In March 2025, two people died and several were injured after a car rammed pedestrians in downtown Mannheim, a month after 30 people were injured in Munich when a car was driven into a crowd in the southern city.

The deadliest incident occurred Dec. 16, 2016, in Berlin when at least 12 people were killed and 56 were injured when a truck hijacked by an asylum seeker plowed into a Christmas market in the capital.

Failed Tunisian asylum-seeker 24-year-old Anis Amri fled to Italy, where he was killed in a shootout with police near Milan on Dec. 20.

The truck’s legitimate driver, Lukasz Urban, a Polish citizen shot dead by Amri, was the 13th victim.