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Driver shot after car hits three people in German city of Heidelberg Driver shot after car hits three people in German city of Heidelberg
(35 minutes later)
Three people have been injured after a man drove into the central square of the German city of Heidelberg, hitting three people outside a bakery. Three people have been seriously injured after a man drove a car into pedestrians in a square in the centre of Heidelberg.
One of those struck by the vehicle remains in a serious condition in hospital. The attacker fled, armed with a knife, before being surrounded by police outside an office block. After a stand-off, the man was shot once by an officer, according to video of the incident posted on social media, then taken to hospital.
Police managed to track the driver, believed to have been carrying a knife, after he fled the scene on foot. He was cut off by a patrol and was shot after a brief standoff and is being treated in hospital for a gunshot wound. Norbert Schaetzle, a police spokesman, told a local TV station that the man had used a rental car, according to Deutsche Welle. He said that no terrorist motive was suspected.
A police spokesman said it was not thought to be a terrorist attack, but would not confirm reports the driver was mentally disturbed. He added that the man appeared to have acted alone. Local reports claim the man was driving a black car in Bismarckplatz in the centre of Heidelberg, a town in south-western Germany, when he drove into a pedestrian zone near a busy bus and tram stop.
In December, 12 people were killed and more than 50 injured when an attacker drove a lorry into a packed Berlin Christmas market. Three people were hit by the car before the man got out and ran away from the tram station, carrying a knife.
After being apprehended, police ordered him to drop the knife, but, according to local media, he refused and was shot.
“A man drove into groups of people, three hurt, the suspect arrested and wounded,” police wrote on Twitter, without saying whether the driver acted intentionally.
Germany has been on high alert since a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in December, killing 12 people. A Tunisian suspect was shot dead days later by police in Italy.
The Berlin incident evoked memories of the July truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian Islamic State group-sympathiser.