A car has driven into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim leaving two dead and at least 25 injured, according to local media reports.

Police confirmed that a suspect had been identified and arrested this afternoon, but added that ‘no further, reliable information can currently be released’. 

A police spokesman at the scene also told Welt they could not yet rule out a second attack.

Bild reported this afternoon that two people had been killed and 25 had been injured, 15 of them seriously. 

Several were seen lying on the ground in the aftermath, with two people apparently being resuscitated, a witness told Reuters.

Another witness, sitting at a restaurant on Paradeplatz at the time, told Welt that ‘all hell broke loose’. 

He said he did not see the crash, but ‘people running away in panic’ and police everywhere, even on rooftops.

The incident occurred as crowds gathered in cities across regions including Germany‘s Rhineland for parades to mark the carnival season. 

Police were on high alert for this year’s carnival parades after social media accounts connected to ISIS called for attacks on the events in Cologne and Nuremberg. 

Mannheim’s University Hospital meanwhile said that it was preparing for a possible mass accident with multiple casualties, according to Welt.

Eight trauma teams have been brought together for both adult and child potential victims of the incident.

Mannheim police said in a statement on Monday: ‘There is currently a police operation in Mannheim city center, in the area around Wasserturm/Plankenkopf.

‘Police and rescue services are on their way. Further information is not yet available. In this context, there may be temporary traffic disruptions in the city centre.’

Police would not disclose what prompted the large law enforcement presence in the city center but a spokesperson said the incident had been reported as ‘a life-threatening deployment situation.’

Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm told n-tv television that an ‘incident’ occurred at around 12:15 p.m. in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim that triggered a large police deployment. He said he couldn’t give details. 

Authorities pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city’s downtown area due to a big police deployment. 

Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires. 

Security has been a key concern in Germany following a string of violent attacks in recent weeks, including deadly car rammings in Magdeburg in December and in Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May 2024. 

Mannheim was blighted by a mass stabbing when a man ambushed and attacked several people at a rally hosted by the anti-Islam Citizen’s Movement Pax Europe group.

At least 39 people, including a two-year-old child, were also injured in Munich last month when a man drove a car into a crowd of 1,000 strikers. 

Footage from the scene captured the moment the driver was arrested, as cops swarmed the vehicle and pinned him to the ground. 

It came just weeks after a car drove into a group of people at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing at least six and injuring nearly 70. 

In December, the country was also rocked by an attack in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, when a 28-year-old man stabbed a two-year-old boy and a passerby to death in a German park. 

Two people were killed and three injured, police said.

There was no initial suggestion Monday’s incident in Mannheim was a deliberate attack. 

Mannheim, population 326,000, lies about 85 kilometers (52 miles) south of Frankfurt.