More than 30 injured after car 'driven into crowds' at carnival parade in Germany

Thirty people, many of them children, were injured when a man drove his car into a carnival parade in Germany on Monday.

Police believe the incident in the small town of Volksmaren, near Kassel, was deliberate. Seven of the victims are seriously injured, among them children.

The driver is a 29-year-old German citizen who has not been named under the country’s privacy laws. He is understood to be from the local area, and has no history of political extremism.

“We don’t think this was a terror attack. We’re assuming it was an intentional crime,” a police spokesman told reporters.

But the regional government said a terror attack “could not be ruled out” given the facts on the ground.

There were conflicting claims over the driver's condition on Monday evening. There were unconfirmed reports he had been taken to a psychiatric clinic. Prosecutors denied reports he could not be questioned because he was severely drunk.

“He was not drunk and cannot be questioned because of his injuries,” Alexander Badle, a spokesman for prosecutors said.

A woman claiming to be one of the man's neighbours told German television he appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

“I saw him drive away today. He looked like he was on drugs and said: ‘I'll be in the newspaper soon’,” she told RTL television.

There were unconfirmed reports of a second arrest, but the details were unclear.

The incident took place at around 2.30pm local time (1.30pm GMT) as families were taking part in a traditional Rose Monday carnival parade.

Witnesses described a silver Mercedes estate car racing into the crowd. It travelled some 30 metres before it came to a stop, and the driver reportedly still had his foot on the accelerator.

Witnesses claimed the driver appeared to target children deliberately, and swerved to avoid a barrier before ploughing into the crowd. After the car came to a stop bystanders attempted to attack the driver and he had to be protected by police.

“It was a beautiful procession and just as it ended I suddenly saw flashing lights and heard sirens. Crying people came towards me. There were mainly injured children on the street, but also older people,” Reinhard Kubat, a local councillor, told Bild newspaper.

“When I arrived there were 15 people on the floor, many of them small children. People were howling everywhere, including grown men. Fathers who saw their children lying on the floor,” Elmar Schulten, a reporter for the local Waldeckische Landeszeitung newspaper said.

The injured were treated at the scene by paramedics before being transferred to nearby hospitals.

Volksmaren, a small town of some 6,800 inhabitants in the central state of Hesse, was in deep shock. All access roads to the town were sealed off, and police requested local people not to share any photographs they had of the scene on social media.

Police in the city of Mainz ordered drones to fly near large events in order to monitor suspicious car movements.

The police presence is already heightened across Germany in the wake of a series of attacks.

The latest incident comes just days after a far-Right gunman killed nine people before turning his gun on his mother and himself in the town of Hanau, which also lies in Hesse.

Tobias Rathjen targetted shisha bars frequented by the town’s immigrant community and left behind a manifesto which sought to justify the killings on racist grounds.

Carnival celebrations were cancelled across Hesse in respect for the victims of Monday's incident.

“Our thoughts are with the injured. We hope they will all make a swift and full recovery,” Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said on Twitter. I wish them, their families and everyone who was in the Rose Monday parade strength. And I thank the emergency services from the bottom of my heart.”

“I am shocked by this bad deed, which has injured so many innocent people, some of them seriously,” Volker Bouffier, the regional prime minister of Hesse, said in a statement.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives and friends, and I wish everyone a speedy and complete recovery.”