Death toll rises to two after car hit crowd in Germany

Mannheim: A car driven into a crowd in southwest Germany on Monday killed two people, authorities said, adding they had arrested a 40-year-old German man after the incident.

"Two people died from their injuries and several others are seriously injured," Baden-Wuerttemberg state's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said in a statement.

"We can confirm that one suspect was arrested," he said, adding that "the investigation is continuing".

Wilhelm said residents had been urged "to avoid the inner city area" after the emergency sparked a large-scale police operation.

Police with heavy weapons cordoned off the area and police helicopters were seen in the air.

Bild daily reported that a car drove into a crowd of people, leaving two dead and 25 injured with pictures showing ambulances near the city's historical water tower.

A reporter for news channel NTV reported that "at least one person is lying covered under a tarpaulin".

Germany has in recent months suffered a spate of violent attacks.

Last month a man drove a car into a trade union demonstration in the southern city of Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother.

In December a car-ramming attack targeted a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.

Mannheim itself was the scene of a stabbing attack at an anti-Islam rally last May in which a policeman was killed and five others wounded.