Car crashes into crowd at Carnival in German town of Volkmarsen, at least 30 people injured
More than 30 people were injured on Monday after a man drove into a crowd at a Carnival parade in the German town of Volkmarsen, police said.
Police spokesman Henning Hinn said “there were several dozen injured, among them some seriously, and sadly also children.” Some of the injuries were life-threatening, he added. The number of those seriously injured was put at seven by Frankfurt police.
Hinn continued: “We are working on the assumption that it was a deliberate act.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted: “Our thoughts are with the injured by #Volkmarsen. We hope that everyone will recover well and quickly. And from the bottom of my heart thanks to the emergency services on site.
Nothing was immediately known about the motive of the driver, identified as a 29-year-old German citizen. It was confirmed that the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office would take over the investigation.
The town of Volkmarsen is in the state of Hesse, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) west of Berlin. Dozens of ambulances were called to the scene, as well as a helicopter.
The crash came at the height of Germany’s celebration of Carnival, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz.
Video footage from the scene showed a silver Mercedes with local license plates and its hazard lights flashing on a sidewalk, while emergency crews were in attendance. The crash occurred on the south side of the town, by a supermarket.
Police shut down the area where the incident took place and urged people not to spread “unconfirmed reports” about the crash.
North Hesse police’s official Twitter account said: “We are on site with a large contingent. The investigation is ongoing. As soon as reliable information is available, we will publish it here.”
All parades in Hesse were subsequently called off as a precautionary measure, police confirmed.
rs, jsi/aw (AP, dpa)