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A nine-month-old baby and a 73-year-old woman were among the victims in Trier, Germany, after a man zigzagging drove a city jeep down a pedestrian street. – I think this is Trier’s darkest day since World War II, says Mayor Wolfram Leibe.
Several people died in the Trier incident.
Prosecutor Peter Fritzen says the driver of the car, a 51-year-old Trier resident, appears to have suffered from mental health problems and was seriously affected in the incident, in which five people were killed and 14 others were injured.
– We see these types of images on television quite often and we think that this cannot happen. Now it has happened in Trier, Mayor Wolfram Leibe tells reporters.
According to the police, there appears to be no political motive for the incident.
Among the dead were a nine-month-old baby, a 73-year-old woman, a 25-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man. Police have not yet released details on the fifth death, according to AFP.
The baby’s mother was among those injured on the spot and was taken to hospital.
The man drove to Simeonstraße, which is described as a kind of pulse in the city, with 110,000 inhabitants. Trier is located in Rhineland-Palatinate, near the Luxembourg border, and was founded by the Romans.
According to police, the man drove between 600 meters and a kilometer, leaving a trail of devastation. Witnesses have described how people were thrown when they were struck by the man, who was driving zigzagged down the street, and what appears to be randomly targeting his victims. Police stopped the vehicle when one of the main streets veered off, four minutes after the first alarm sounded.
The 51-year-old had 1.4 per thousand alcohol in his blood when he committed the act. According to Die Welt, he is not on the criminal record and does not appear to have a permanent home or family. The city jeep he was driving belonged to an acquaintance and the man is said to have slept in it in recent days.
– It is fortunate that the Christmas markets are closed due to the wreath, otherwise it could have been much worse, witness Frederic Fries tells Welt TV.
In the evening, the bells of Trier Cathedral rang and a memorial service was held for the victims.
– We wanted to express our condolences for those who lost their lives and for those who lost a loved one, says one of the visitors to AFP.
