More than 50 people were injured when a car was driven into a crowd at a carnival procession in Germany.
The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen, near Kassel, police said. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide but has a serious head injury and has not yet been able to face questioning.
German
police said on Tuesday that 35 people, including 18 children, were in hospital, while another 17 had been released. Some had life-threatening injuries.A spokesperson for Frankfurt prosecutors, Alexander Badle, said: “The investigation, especially into the circumstances of the crime, continues.
“In particular, no information can yet be provided about a motive. The investigation is exploring all avenues.”
Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, added: “This is a terrible act committed against people who simply wanted to celebrate carnival.” He declined to comment on reports that a second person had been detained.
Beuth added that among the injured were children who had come to watch the parade and collect sweets that are traditionally thrown into the crowds at the celebrations.
Chancellor
Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery.
Emergency responders set up a makeshift clinic in a town pharmacy to treat casualties with minor injuries, the regional Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.
Witnesses said the car drove around a barrier blocking off traffic from the parade, according to the paper.
Video from the scene showed a silver Mercedes with local licence plates on a pavement, its front windscreen badly smashed and bonnet dented, and its hazard lights blinking, while emergency crews walked by.
Forensic experts could be seen taking photos and measurements around the car, walking around fragments of carnival costumes that littered the ground.
The crash came during the height of nationwide celebrations, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mainz.
All other carnival parades in the central state of Hesse were ended on Monday as a precaution.
Hesse state is still reeling from a racist
shooting last week in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau. A 43-year-old man killed nine people with
immigrant backgrounds late on Wednesday before killing his mother and then himself.