Police officers stand around a car in front of a business building in Heidelberg, western Germany, where a man ploughed into pedestrians before beeing shot by the police on February 25, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / Thomas Lohnes)
A man apparently drove a car into pedestrians in a central square in the German city of Heidelberg on Saturday, injuring three people, then fled and was shot after being tracked down by officers, police said.
One of the three people hit outside a bakery on Saturday afternoon was seriously injured, police spokeswoman Anne Baas said.
The man, who is believed to have been carrying a knife, then got out of his rental car, another police spokesman, Norbert Schaetzle, told n-tv television.
He was intercepted by a police patrol and shot by an officer following a short standoff. He has been taken to a hospital.
Police officers investigate a car in front of a business building in Heidelberg, western Germany, where a man ploughed into pedestrians before beeing shot by the police on February 25, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / Thomas Lohnes)
There was no immediate word on the man’s possible motives or where he came from.
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Schaetzle said he couldn’t confirm local media reports that the man was mentally disturbed, but said a terrorist background was not suspected and the man appeared to have acted alone.
Policemen stand in front of the ‘Hotel Bergheim41’ in Heidelberg, western Germany, near the place where a man ploughed into pedestrians, before being shot by the police on February 25, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / Thomas Lohnes)
Germany has been on high alert since a Tunisian rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in December, killing 12 people, before being shot dead days later by police in Italy.
The Berlin carnage evoked memories of the July truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamic State sympathizer.
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