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In an incident involving a car in Germany, at least two people were killed and several injured in the center of Trier. “There are several dead and several people seriously injured,” said Trier Presidium spokesman Karl-Peter Jochem.
Mayor Wolfram Leibe spoke in an interview with SWR of a “gunman in the center of town.” The driver was arrested and the car impounded. Police said he was a 51-year-old German from the Trier-Saarburg district. The man drove through a pedestrian zone in a van and apparently hit people “at random.”
“What happened in Trier is shocking,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter. “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 the victims.”
The background of why the driver entered the pedestrian zone near Porta Nigra was initially unclear. Eyewitnesses reported that people were thrown into the air. “We see these kinds of images on television quite often and we think that can’t happen to us,” Leibe said. “Now it has also happened in Trier.”
“It was just terrible”
Rescue workers from across the region are on duty. “Everyone is busy taking the wounded and seriously injured to hospitals right now,” Leibe said. He walked through the city center after the incident. “It was terrible,” he said, describing how he had seen a sneaker.
A large number of policemen were also in action. The ADAC sent rescue helicopters and one injured person was flown to Wittlich. Large parts of the city center were cordoned off. After the arrest there is no longer any danger to the population, police said.
The city, police and professional firefighters announced a press conference at the town hall for 7pm. The Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Roger Lewentz, and Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (both from the SPD) are also on site and they want to appear before the press overnight.
In February, a 29-year-old German had deliberately driven his car into the crowd in Volkmarsen, north Hesse. Dozens of people were injured. In 2019, a 50-year-old man had beaten people on New Year’s Eve in Bottrop. He was admitted to closed psychiatry. In 2018, a man ran into a group with his caravan in Münster, five people died. Perpetrator shot himself, investigators assume mental illness.
