Mannheim: A car rammed into a crowd of pedestrians in the city of Mannheim, Germany, killing at least two persons and prompting a large-scale police operation on Sunday, according to the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper.

Eyewitnesses described seeing multiple people lying on the ground following the incident, though it remains unclear whether they sustained injuries or were killed. Authorities have not yet confirmed the number of casualties.

Police in the western German city of Mannheim have asked the public to stay away from the downtown area and keep inside their homes. Mannheim is a city of about 300,000 people located south of Frankfurt.

The incident took place as crowds gathered in various cities, including Germany’s Rhineland, for carnival season parades. Reports indicate that a black SUV sped into pedestrians, moving from the centrally located Paradeplatz square towards Mannheim’s iconic water tower.

German news website Bild reported the driver of the car has been arrested.

Police would not disclose what prompted the large law enforcement presence in the city center but a spokesperson said the incident had been reported as “a life-threatening deployment situation.”

Stefan Wilhelm, a police spokesperson, said that an “incident” occurred at around 12.15 in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim that triggered a large police deployment. He said he couldn’t give details. Authorities pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city’s downtown area due to a big police deployment. Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires.

“We can confirm that one perpetrator was arrested,” he said. “We can’t yet give information on whether there were further perpetrators.”

Images from the scene showed parts of the downtown area were cordoned off, with a heavy police presence and helicopters hovering above. Police gathered round a badly damaged black car as ambulances lined up outside the cordon.

Security has been a growing concern in Germany following a series of violent attacks in recent weeks, including fatal car rammings in Magdeburg in December and Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May 2024.

(With inputs from AP)