BERLIN, Dec 1 — Two people were killed and up to 15 injured today when they were hit by a car in a pedestrian area of the western German city of Trier, the city’s mayor said, according to public broadcaster SWR.
Police said several people had been killed, having earlier put the death toll at two.
“We have arrested one person, one vehicle has been secured. Two people have died, according to preliminary indications. Please continue to avoid the downtown area,” police said on Twitter.
A 51-year-old suspect from the Trier area was being questioned, police said.
Mayor Wolfram Leibe had rushed to the scene.
“We have a driver who ran amok in the city. We have two dead that we are certain of and up to 15 injured, some of them with the most severe injuries,” he told SWR.
“I just walked through the city centre and it was just horrible. There is a trainer lying on the ground, and the girl it belongs to is dead,” he told a news conference, with tears stopping him from speaking further.
Leibe said he did not know the motive for the incident.
The Trierischer Volksfreund local newspaper quoted an eyewitness as saying a dark grey Range Rover was driving at high speed and people had been thrown through the air.
It said the city centre had been cordoned off and helicopters were circling overhead.
Parents were asked to pick up their children early from school, the newspaper added.
Municipal authorities warned people to stay away from the city centre. The fire brigade, rescue services and police were at the scene. — Reuters
