MANNHEIM, Germany: Investigators on Tuesday will question a driver who allegedly rammed a car into a crowd in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, killing two people and injuring 11.
Andreas Stenger, head of the State Criminal Police Office, told German news agency dpa that police hope the interview with the perpetrator will lead to information about a motive for Monday’s attack.
Mourners, including Sara Stefini, left flowers in the city’s center Tuesday to honor the victims.
“It’s where I live, the center of my life,” a tearful Stefini told dpa at the impromptu memorial.
The suspect is a 40-year-old German man from the nearby state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was detained and is in a hospital after being injured, State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl of Baden-Württemberg, which includes Mannheim, told dpa on Monday.
Strobl later told reporters in Mannheim that “as far as the specific motivation of the crime is concerned, we have no indication of an extremist or religious background at the moment. The motivation could rather be based in the person of the perpetrator himself.”
German police and prosecutors said Monday at a joint news conference that the driver intentionally rammed his car into people and is being investigated for murder and attempted murder. Five of the 11 injured were seriously hurt.
Police and prosecutors said the driver shot himself in the mouth when he was arrested and had to undergo medical treatment at a hospital.
While the driver did not seem to be ideologically motivated, prosecutors said that the man, whose identity was not revealed in line with German privacy rules, has several previous convictions.
He served a short prison sentence for assault more than 10 years ago, and was convicted for drunken driving. He had also been investigated for a hate speech offense on Facebook in 2018, for which he was fined, prosecutors said without giving further details.
Investigators are also looking into the possibility that the driver may suffer from psychological problems.
Cars have been used as deadly weapons in several acts of violence in recent months in Germany.
Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm said a vehicle drove into people on Paradeplatz, a pedestrian street downtown, around noon, when workers come out for lunchbreaks. Local media reported a carnival market was taking place, meaning more visitors than usual in Mannheim, which has a population of 326,000.
Friedrich Merz, who likely will become Germany’s next chancellor, wrote on X that “the incident — as well as the terrible acts of the past few months — is an urgent reminder that we must do everything we can to prevent such acts.”
Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that “we mourn with the families of the victims of a senseless act of violence.”
Last month, a 2-year-old girl and her mother died two days after they were injured in a car-ramming attack on a union demonstration in Munich. A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested, and prosecutors said he appeared to have an Islamic extremist motive.

ROME: Pope Francis was in stable condition Tuesday and breathing with just the help of supplemental oxygen after respiratory crises a day earlier, but will resume using a ventilation mask at night, the Vatican said.
In its late update, the Vatican said Francis had no further respiratory episodes during a day spent praying, resting and undergoing respiratory physiotherapy.
Doctors said that they would put the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask back on him while he sleeps, but that during the day he was only using high flows of supplemental oxygen.
Doctors said his prognosis remains guarded, meaning he is not out of danger.
Pope Francis stabilized enough after two respiratory crises to resume using a nasal tube for oxygen, rather than a ventilation mask, as he continued to fight pneumonia, the Vatican said earlier on Tuesday.
The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, woke up after sleeping through the night. The fact that Francis no longer needed the mask by Tuesday morning was a sign of some improvement after crises that required doctors to extract “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs.
But the doctors’ prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger.
The Vatican said as of Tuesday morning, Francis no longer needed to wear the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask that covers his nose and mouth to pump oxygen into his lungs and was just receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube.
Francis suffered two respiratory crises a day earlier. Doctors performed two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid. The pope remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel during the crises, the Vatican said.
His medical team has not provided an in-person update on his condition since Feb. 21, a sign of the up-and-down nature of his hospitalization, the longest of his 12-year papacy.
Argentines pray for the pope at hospital
On Tuesday, a group of Argentines from the country’s embassies in Rome brought a statue of Our Lady of Lujan to the Gemelli hospital to pray for Francis. The Argentine pope is particularly devoted to the blue veiled Lujan Madonna, which has been revered in Argentina since the 17th century.
“I am very happy to be now close to him,” said the Rev. Fernando Laguna, parish priest of the Argentine church in Rome. “I would like to hug him, but it’s not possible, but he told us that a prayer is like a hug So I am happy despite the pain.”
Vatican prepares for Lent without Francis
Francis’ treatment comes as the Vatican prepares for Lent, the solemn period leading up to Easter on April 20. As it is, a cardinal has been designated to take Francis’ place this week on Ash Wednesday, which opens Lent with a traditional service and procession in Rome. The pope was also supposed to attend a spiritual retreat this coming weekend with the rest of the Holy See hierarchy.
On Tuesday, the Vatican said the retreat would go ahead without Francis but in “spiritual communion” with him. The theme, selected weeks ago and well before Francis got sick, was “Hope in eternal life.”
Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. The accumulation of secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn’t have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid.
Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off intubation or the use of more invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It’s not clear if he has provided any instructions on the limits of his care if he declines seriously or loses consciousness.
Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life.
Francis articulated that in a 2017 speech to a meeting of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank, the Pontifical Academy for Life. He said there was “no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.” He added: “It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment.’”