At least two people have been killed and several injured after a driver in an SUV ploughed into a crowd in the centre of Leipzig, eastern Germany, the city’s mayor has said. The incident occurred at about 4.45pm on Monday in a pedestrian zone that was full of shoppers and cafe patrons on a warm spring afternoon.
“The police have apprehended the suspected assailant,” Mayor Burkhard Jung said, adding that the authorities had the scene under control. “We still don’t really know the motivation. We don’t know anything about the perpetrator.” The suspect, a 33-year-old German-born resident of the Leipzig area, has been arrested.
Emergency services reported that about two dozen people were hurt. Fire chief Axel Schuh said two people were seriously injured and 20 others were affected. Approximately 40 firefighters and 40 paramedics were on the scene, along with two helicopters. The driver is believed to have turned from Augustus Square into the shopping district of Grimmaische Street at high speed, continuing about 500 metres towards Naschmarkt Square. Witnesses said the car appeared to have been stopped by retractable bollards.
Mayor Jung expressed solidarity with the victims’ families and asked onlookers to go home. Shops in the area were ordered to close, and bodies covered with sheets were seen on the pavement. Traditional Monday prayers for peace at St Nicholas church were overshadowed by the incident, with church superintendent Sebastian Feydt saying many people flocked there for shelter.
Germany has experienced a series of car-ramming incidents in recent years, including a fatal attack in Mannheim last year and a December 2024 attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg.
