Driver arrested after car hits carnival parade in Germany
Around 30 people were injured after a driver ploughed his car into a carnival parade in Germany.
German media outlets said police believe the driver – who has been arrested and identified as a 29-year-old German citizen – acted deliberately although a motive is not yet known. The driver is in custody and being questioned.
German media outlets have reported that children are among the injured after the car was driven into the parade in Volkmarsen, in the state of Hesse. Bild newspaper said a third of the injuries were serious and some were life-threatening.
All carnival parades in Hesse have been called off as a precautionary measure, but police said they were not aware of any danger elsewhere in Germany.
Photos published online showed police officers standing next to a silver Mercedes-Benz car that appeared to have been involved in the incident, Reuters reported.
German media said the driver deliberately broke through plastic barriers set up by police around the parade area, where 1,500 people were expected to gather.
Dirk Richter, police spokesman in the nearby city of Kassel told Welt TV: “Everything we have available from the Kassel area is there.”
The incident comes less than a week after a gunman killed 11 people, including himself, in one of the worst racist attacks in Germany since World War Two.
Germany is celebrating Rose Monday today, in which tens of thousands of ppeople attend street parades featuring comical or satirical floats.