Two people have been killed and up to 20 others injured after a car drove into a busy pedestrian zone in the eastern German city of Leipzig in what authorities have declared a mass casualty event, with the driver — a 33-year-old German citizen — arrested at the scene.
Leipzig’s Mayor Burkhard Jung confirmed the death toll and injuries to journalists at the scene as police launched a major operation in the city centre. Officers said there was no further danger to the public following the arrest of the suspect. The prime minister of the state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said the suspect may have had mental health issues, though investigations into the full circumstances and motive are ongoing.
A city press release formally classified the incident as a “mass casualty event.” Local broadcaster Radio Leipzig reported that a damaged Volkswagen SUV was seen speeding through the pedestrian zone with a person on top of the vehicle, with witnesses describing scenes of chaos in the immediate aftermath. Local media reported that two people were killed and two more suffered serious injuries, with the wider injury toll reaching as many as 20 people.
The attack is the latest in a sequence of vehicle ramming and stabbing incidents to have struck Germany and other European countries in recent years. Last year, two people were killed in Mannheim when a 40-year-old man drove into a group of pedestrians, only weeks after a similar attack on a trade union demonstration in Munich that killed two and injured more than 40, many of them children. In December 2024, several people were killed when a car was driven into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg — an attack that shocked the country and prompted renewed debate about public safety and security measures at large gatherings. That incident came months after a stabbing attack at a festival in Solingen that also claimed lives.
Some of the previous attacks in Germany have been linked to religious or political motivations, while others have involved perpetrators with documented mental health conditions. Police have not yet specified which category, if either, applies to the Leipzig incident.
Leipzig police confirmed they were conducting a large-scale operation in the area and would provide further updates as the investigation developed.
