At least one killed after car drives into people on street in Leipzig

A car ploughed into people on a street Germany’s eastern city of Leipzig on Monday, leaving at least one person dead and several others injured, authorities said.

The driver was arrested after the vehicle careered from a main square down a major city centre street, close to historic sites.

Leipzig mayor Burkhard Jung confirmed one person had died, adding: “We still don’t really know the motivation. We don’t know anything about the perpetrator.”

Leipzig fire service chief Axel Schuh said two people were also seriously injured and two others were “affected.”

Police said in a post on X that the car ploughed into people on Grimmaische street and then “fled the scene.”

But they later arrested the driver, adding that “there is currently no further danger from him.”

Saxony’s Minister President Michael Kretschmer said the suspect is a young man is a German citizen who has been described as “psychologically conspicuous,” and said the incident was a “suspected rampage attack.”

The state’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster confirmed at a press conference that the suspect is a 33-year-old German national who has been arrested and is believed to be a “lone perpetrator.”

Police deployed in large numbers along with firefighters, emergency medical personnel and two helicopters.

Leipzig is located southwest of Berlin and has more than 630,000 inhabitants, making it one of the biggest cities in eastern Germany.

Series of rammings

Since an attack in Berlin in December 2016, carried out by a Tunisian with jihadist motives who drove a truck into the crowd, killing 13 people, Germany has faced repeated ramming 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 injured by the Afghan driver of a vehicle that rammed into a march in Munich.

The attacks came as sensitivities have grown in parts of German society over immigrants, following a large migrant influx in 2015.

Immigration and security have risen up the political agenda in German political debate, helping fuel the rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Additional sources • AFP

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