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A BABY and three other people were killed after a car riot left a “trail of destruction” as a driver drove past Christmas shoppers.
Witnesses recounted how they saw a stroller “flying through the air” as the Range Rover charged at high speed in the pedestrian zone of Trier, Germany, at 1:35 pm local time today.
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The victims were shot dead in front of terrified children out Christmas shopping with their parents in the bustling center of the city.
The 51-year-old driver, who has been arrested, left a trail of carnage in his wake when schools were closed and children were told to stay inside buildings.
German police told a news conference that four people died, including a nine-month-old baby and a 73-year-old local woman.
The other victims killed were a 25-year-old woman from Trier and a 45-year-old man, also from Trier.
Another nine have been “seriously injured” and six slightly injured after the shocking attack that has rocked the country.
The mother of the murdered baby is one of those receiving treatment at the hospital.
Investigators said officers are questioning a 51-year-old suspect, but his motive is not yet clear.
They added that the man was drunk when he allegedly carried out the attack.
“There is no indication of a political background,” police said in a statement.
Local media have identified the suspect as Bernd W., described as a “strange individual” who is “short-tempered and sometimes aggressive,” his neighbors told Focus.
German privacy laws mean that the full last name of the alleged attacker cannot be published.
He reportedly grew up in a western German city suburb where he lived with his mother until she died a few years ago.
Prosecutor Peter Fritzen told reporters that the initial indications “suggest that psychiatric problems possibly played a role.”
The suspect has no criminal record and had been living in his loaned car, it was reported.
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According to Chief Constable Franz-Dieter Ankner, the suspect’s car was not driving in a straight line, but was repeatedly heading toward sidewalks as it swept through the city center.
Mayor Wolfram Leibe said: “This is probably the darkest day in Trier since WWII.”
Footage from the scene showed people outside a store apparently helping victims on the ground amidst scattered rubble.
And unverified video appeared to show police officers pinning the suspect to the ground behind a Range Rover after apparently ramming the car with his own vehicle.
Mayor Leibe said he ran to the scene, which he described as “a horror show.”
In an emotional press conference, he said: “I walked through the center of the city and it was horrible.
“There’s a coach lying on the ground, and the girl he belongs to is dead.”
He told N-TV that the people who saw the incident were “totally traumatized” and that the street “looks a bit after a war.”
The suspect drove from Porta Nigra to the main market and then to Fleischstrasse where several people were injured.
It is said to have left a “trail of destruction” before armed policemen flooded the area.
Parents were called shortly after 2 p.m. and asked to pick up their children from school early amid the uproar.
Christmas markets in Germany were canceled amid the coronavirus outbreak, but stores remained open for holiday shopping.
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A shop owner said panicked people screamed as they flocked into her shop as the car crashed into the crowd on the pedestrian street.
In a statement, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “The news from Trier is very sad.
“My condolences to the families of people who were ripped from their lives so suddenly and by force.
“I also think of those who have suffered serious injuries and I wish them great strength.”
Police said “there was no indication of an ongoing threat.”
“The crime scene, the pedestrian zone, is cordoned off and secured in a large area. We ask you to avoid the area,” the force said on Twitter.
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“The crime scene work is done at full speed, as is the background investigation.”
Footage of the scene broadcast by NTV showed several police vans and other emergency vehicles parked on a wide shopping street in Trier, a large part of which appeared to have been cleared.
Shoppers were seen huddling in front of stores adorned with Christmas decorations, while sirens could be heard in the distance.
Four years have passed since a truck deliberately drove through a Berlin Christmas market, leaving 12 dead and 56 injured.
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In the 2016 attack, Anis Amri shot and killed a truck driver before using the vehicle to plow the victims while they were enjoying a day at the fair.
In August 2019, six people were injured in a series of motorway accidents in Berlin in what prosecutors described as an alleged Islamist attack.
Trier is about 120 miles west of Frankfurt, near the Luxembourg border.
The city of approximately 110,000 inhabitants is known for its Roman gate, the Porta Nigra, which is close to the crash site and as the birthplace of Karl Marx.
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