German man drives car into Carnival crowd, injuring 30

A guy intentionally drove an automobile into a crowd at a Carnival parade in a little town in central Germany, injuring around 30 persons including children, officials said Monday.

The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen near Kassel, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, prosecutors said. He's being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide.

A spokesman for Frankfurt prosecutors, Alexander Badle, said in a statement that “about 30 people” were injured. These were taken up to surrounding hospitals, some with life-threatening injuries.

The suspect was also injured, said Badle.

“The investigation, especially in to the circumstances of the crime, continues,” he said. “Specifically, no information can yet be provided in regards to a motive. The investigation is exploring all avenues.”

“This is an awful act committed against persons who simply wished to celebrate Carnival,” said Peter Beuth, the inside minister for the state of Hesse, where Volkmarsen is located. He declined to touch upon reports a second person was detained following crash.

Beuth said in regards to a third of these injured were children, who had come to watch the parade and accumulate candy that's traditionally thrown in to the crowds at Carnival celebrations in Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery. She also thanked the authorities and all medical personnel involved.

Emergency responders create a makeshift clinic in a town pharmacy to take care of casualties with minor injuries, the regional Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.

Witnesses said the car drove around a barrier blocking off traffic from the parade, according to the paper.

Video from the scene showed a silver Mercedes station wagon with local license plates on a sidewalk, its front windshield badly smashed and hood dented, and its own hazard lights blinking, while emergency crews walked by. Forensic specialists could be seen taking images and measurements around the crashed car, travelling fragments of Carnival costumes that littered the bottom.

The crash came amid the height of Germany's celebration of Carnival, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz.

All the Carnival parades in the central state of Hesse were ended Monday as a precaution.

Hesse state continues to be reeling from a racist shooting the other day in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau. A 43-year-old man killed nine people with immigrant backgrounds late Wednesday before killing his mother and then himself.