Two people were killed and several others were injured when a driver rammed a car into a busy pedestrian shopping street in Leipzig, Germany, on Monday, police told NBC News.
Saxony police said an operation is underway in Leipzig's city center after a car struck several people on the prominent pedestrian shopping street of Grimmaische Strasse a little before 5 p.m. local time and fled.
"According to current information, two people have died in the incident, and an as-yet-undetermined number of people have been injured," police said in a news release Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson for Saxony police said in an email that both fatal victims are German citizens.
Authorities described the driver who plowed his vehicle into the crowded street as a 33-year-old German citizen. They said the suspect was inside the car when police arrested him shortly after he fled. Police said they don't know what motivated the car ramming.
“I am deeply shocked and can only express my solidarity with the victims’ families and note with dismay that two people have lost their lives as a result of such an act, which remains incomprehensible to this day and probably always will be,” Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung said at the news conference Monday.
German authorities said the suspect was arrested and is in police custody as the public prosecutor’s office initiates an investigation on suspicion of attempted murder. An unknown number of injured people are in the hospital.
Investigators believe the driver acted alone, of Saxony state Interior Minister Armin Schuster said.
A large number of police officers responded to the incident, which emergency authorities declared "a mass casualty," according to a news release.
Images from the scene show a white car with a battered front and a shattered windshield. Witness videos also show dozens of police and emergency vehicles.
"A cordon is currently being established around the affected area," limiting access to Grimmaische Strasse from Augustplatz to Thomaskirchhof as authorities continue their investigation.
Leipzig, southwest of Berlin, is one of the biggest cities in eastern Germany, with a population of more than 630,000.
A support center has been established at the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig to assist anyone affected by the incident and connect with witnesses, police said.
Over the past couple of years, Germany has experienced a spate of car ramming incidents. In December 2024, a driver plowed through a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring hundreds of others. Last year, four people were killed and dozens were injured in two separate car ramming incidents in the cities of Mannheim and Munich.
