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baby girl aged nine months was among at least five people killed and 15 injured after a car ploughed into a group of pedestrians in a southwestern German town centre.
Eyewitnesses described bodies being flung into the air as a dark grey Range Rover rammed through shoppers in the pedestrianised centre in Trier just after 2pm.
The 51-year-old driver from the Trier-Saarburg district has been arrested, the city’s local police force tweeted.
Prosecutor Peter Fritzen, who was heading the investigation, said the suspect was well above the legal drink-drive limit.
He ruled out terrorism, saying a doctor had recently reached the preliminary conclusion the man could be suffering from mental illness.
One witness, who watched the rampage from a shop, described seeing a child’s buggy being thrown into the air as people ran indoors in panic.
Mayor Wolfram Leibe told the SWR broadcaster that in addition to the five dead, 15 people had suffered serious injuries, four of them critical.
The others killed were identified as a 25-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man from Trier. The baby’s mother was among those in hospital. Police said the oldest victim was aged 73.
They later confirmed at least two people have died.
They said: “We arrested one person and one vehicle was seized. According to initial findings, two people have died. Please continue to avoid the city centre.”
The incident comes four years after a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured.