Trier: car crashes into pedestrians – four dead

IIn Trier, in Rhineland-Palatinate, a man ran over several people in a car on Tuesday afternoon and killed four, including a nine-month-old boy. Police confirmed this figure overnight.

In addition, 15 people were injured. Four people were seriously injured, five were seriously injured and six people were slightly injured, Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) said in Trier. Numerous people in the city center were also traumatized.

According to the police, there was an arrest and the car was impounded. Eyewitnesses reported that people were thrown into the air. In a statement, the police announced that the suspect is a 51-year-old German from the Trier-Saarburg district. Assumes a lonely author.

According to Lewentz, the driver took a specific approach. He said he led “zigzag lines” to deliberately inflict suffering. That happened to a very bad extent.

The authorities have yet to receive evidence of a political background. The suspect had not yet presented himself to the police in the past. According to current knowledge, there is no indication of a political background.

The driver will be questioned Tuesday night. According to the current state of the investigation, he was sitting alone in the vehicle. According to the police, he has spent the last few days in a car. He did not spend time in an apartment, Franz-Dieter Ankner, vice president of the Trier police headquarters, said late at night.

Lewentz said he was arrested “four minutes after the initial warning.” A police spokesman added that the driver was “detained” and overwhelmed by forces from the police headquarters. According to the information, the driver has not yet commented.

According to police, the man crossed a pedestrian zone in a van and apparently struck people “at random”. After the arrest, there is no longer any danger to the population.

The first emergency calls were received around 1:48 p.m., police said. At the end of the pedestrian zone, after a distance of approximately one kilometer, the driver could be stopped by the police and was detained.

Parts of Trier city center were cordoned off after the incident. Everywhere in the center, also near the famous Porta Nigra, blue lights could be seen on Tuesday. The ADAC sent rescue helicopters and one injured person was flown to Wittlich.

Police had initially asked people to avoid the affected area. He also warned against the spread of speculation. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance published an official warning of danger. In Trier there is a “special situation”, the affected area must be avoided, he said.

The police have also activated an information portal on the Internet. Investigators asked witnesses via Twitter to upload photos or videos of the crime. Notes and information for relatives of possible injuries are available on 0800 6565651.

Trace of devastation in the main market

Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) expressed her horror at the fatal incident. In the middle of a perfectly normal day, people were ripped from their lives, Dreyer said. “It is very bad for all of us.” Their thoughts are with the wounded and seriously injured and they hope and pray that they survived and recovered. Trier Mayor Wolfram Leibe (SPD) said in the SWR that it was a case of insanity. Leibe spoke of a “horror picture” that was presented to him when he arrived at the crime scene.

Parents were asked to pick up their children from schools in the city center, as there had been an uproar, the “Trierische Volksfreund” reported.

Consequently, the driver of an off-road vehicle left a trail of devastation in the main market. That can be seen in the market stalls.

Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the federal government, wrote on Twitter: “What happened in Trier is shocking. The thought is with the families of the victims, with the many injured and with all those who are currently on duty to care for those affected.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) expressed her dismay at the incident in Trier. “The news from Trier makes me very saddened,” Merkel said in a statement Seibert posted on Twitter on Tuesday night. “My condolences to the families of those who were so suddenly and violently torn from life.”

He also thinks of those “who have suffered serious injuries, and I wish them great strength,” Merkel added. With the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Dreyer, he is “in contact with the status of the investigation.”