Two killed after car ploughs into city centre crowd in Germany | World News

Two people were killed after a car ploughed into a crowd in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Monday afternoon.

A man drove from the Augustusplatz, a major square, along the Grimmaische Strasse into the city’s central pedestrianised shopping area, police chief Rene Demmler said.

Catch up on this story as it happened

The victims are a 63-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man, both German citizens.

An additional three people were seriously injured in what officials believe was a deliberate rampage, Leipzig mayor Burkhard Jung said, describing it as “a terrible tragedy”.

“It’s impossible to find the right ​words for this horrific attack,” Mr Jung told journalists on Monday evening.

Police arrested the driver, identifying him as ​a 33-year-old man with German citizenship.

He is under investigation on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, prosecutors said. The driver’s motivations are under investigation, but a political or religious motive is not suspected at this stage.

An unspecified number of people sustained less serious injuries, though Leipzig’s fire chief says that more than 20 people have been “affected” overall.

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Saxony’s state premier, Michael Kretschmer, said in a post on X the incident “shakes me to the core” as he expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

“I wish the injured strength and a swift recovery,” he said. “Such an act leaves us speechless – and it makes us determined.”

The car drove into a crowd close to St Nicholas Church and the University of Leipzig in the city centre.

Leipzig is located southwest of Berlin and has more than 630,000 residents, making it one of the biggest cities in eastern Germany.

It is the latest in a spate of car-ramming incidents across the country in recent years.

In March 2025, two people were killed in the western city of Mannheim when a 40-year-old man drove a car into pedestrians.

That came just weeks after a car-ramming attack on a ​trade union ⁠protest in Munich, killing two and injuring more than 40, many of those children.

In December 2024, six people were killed after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the ⁠eastern ​city of Magdeburg.