Amok drives in Trier (D) – motorists whizzing through the pedestrian zone – five dead – News

• A car hit several people in the pedestrian zone of the city of Trier in western Germany.
• According to the new findings, five people were killed, including one child. Several people were injured, some seriously.
• A 51-year-old from the region was arrested. According to the police, there is currently no longer any danger. The background is currently unclear.

According to the Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Roger Lewentz (SPD), the driver has taken a focused approach. The minister told the media that he led “zigzag lines” to deliberately inflict suffering.

In addition to a child, the victims include a 73-year-old woman, a 25-year-old woman and a 52-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man from Trier, according to police. The baby’s mother is according to the authorities in the hospital.

The background to the crime is currently unclear. The alleged perpetrator has not yet had a criminal record. There is no evidence of terrorist or religious motives. There are indications that there is a psychiatric illness, the prosecutor said.

The man was also drunk. He had previously “enjoyed non-negligible amounts of alcohol,” Chief Prosecutor Peter Fritzen said. The man had an alcoholic breath of 1.4 per thousand.

The driver is being investigated in four cases on the basis of an urgent suspicion of murder. He has also been charged with dangerous personal injury in numerous other cases

Thanks for the helpers

The mayor of Trier, Wolfram Leibe, thanked the emergency services. There were about 700 helpers in action, Leibe said. It was the blackest day in Trier after the Second World War. “We see such images on television quite often and we think this can’t happen to us,” he said after the fact. “Now it has happened in Trier too.”

The driver of the car, a 51-year-old German, was arrested “four minutes after the first warning,” Lewentz told the press conference. The driver resisted arrest, police said.

A large number of policemen and rescuers were in action. Police asked residents to avoid the area while securing evidence.

Chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed her condolences to the victims and their families. “The news from Trier makes me very sad,” said a statement from the Chancellor, which government spokesman Steffen Seibert posted on Twitter.