Members of the emergency services work at the scene where several people were injured during an incident involving a car in the city center in Leipzig, eastern Germany – Copyright dpa/AFP Sebastian Willnow
Andrea HENTSCHEL
A car plowed into a crowd on a street in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring several others, authorities said.
Germany has been rocked by a series of car attacks in recent years, including one that targeted a 2024 Christmas market in Magdeburg, as well as Berlin and Munich.
In the latest incident in Leipzig, the driver was arrested after his vehicle drove off a main square down a main city center road near historic sites.
Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung gave a death toll of two, adding: “We still don’t really know the motive. We don’t know anything about the perpetrator.”
Police and the fire service also said two people were killed.
At least two people were seriously injured while 20 others were slightly injured, according to local fire chief Axel Schuh.
Police said the car rammed into people on Grimmaische Street, a main pedestrian area in the city’s old town lined with shops and historic buildings.
“The driver has been arrested, at the moment there is no further danger from him”, they said.
The driver stopped of his own accord, they added.
Television footage showed a white vehicle with its windshield and hood badly damaged, and the road cordoned off and cordoned off by emergency vehicles.
Police were deployed in large numbers along with firefighters, emergency medical personnel and two helicopters.
– Crash Series –
Since the Berlin attack in December 2016, carried out by a jihadi-motivated Tunisian who drove a truck into a crowd, killing 13 people, Germany has faced repeated attacks.
In 2024, a Christmas market in Magdeburg was targeted by a Saudi man with Islamophobic views who drove a car into the crowd, killing six people and injuring more than 300.
In February 2025, a mother and her daughter were killed and around 30 people were injured when the Afghan driver of a vehicle crashed into a march in Munich.
The attacks came as sensitivities have grown in parts of German society over immigrants, following a huge influx of migrants in 2015.
Immigration and security have moved up the political agenda in German political debate, helping to fuel the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
