Car Drives into Pedestrian Crowd in Trier, Germany; 4 Reported Dead

KYIV, Ukraine — At least four people are dead, including one child, and several more were injured after a car plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the German town of Trier today.

According to area media reports, a car drove at high speed into a pedestrian zone in the historic center of Trier, in southwestern Germany. The town of about 100,000 residents is located near the border with Luxembourg. German police announced on Twitter that one person had been arrested, a 51-year-old German man from the Trier-Saarburg area, and the car involved in the incident had been seized. People should “avoid the area,” the police added.

#TR0112
Wir haben aktuell KEINE Hinweise auf eine fortdauernde Gefahr.

Der Tatort – Fußgängerzone – ist weiträumig abgesperrt und gesichert. Wir bitten Euch den Bereich zu meiden.

Die Tatortarbeit erfolgt mit Hochdruck, ebenso die Ermittlungen zu den Hintergründen.

— Polizei Trier (@PolizeiTrier) December 1, 2020

After originally reporting two fatalities, Trier police later said “several” people had been killed, in addition to 15 injured. During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Trier mayor Wolfram Leibe reportedly updated the number of dead to four, according to the local Trierischer Volksfreund newspaper, and RTL, the main television channel in Luxembourg. RTL also reported that 30 people had been injured. One child was killed, Leibe said, adding that the driver had gone on a “rampage.”

Trier’s police force reported that an investigation is ongoing into the background and possible motivation of the driver.

“We currently have no indications of an ongoing threat,” the police reported on Twitter.

A local witness reportedly told the Trierischer Volksfreund newspaper that a dark gray Range Rover had driven into the crowd.

Was in #Trier geschehen ist, ist erschütternd. Die Gedanken sind bei den Angehörigen der Todesopfer, bei den zahlreichen Verletzten und bei allen, die in diesem Moment im Einsatz sind, um die Betroffenen zu versorgen.

— Steffen Seibert (@RegSprecher) December 1, 2020

“Thoughts are with the relatives of the victims, with the injured and with everyone who is currently on duty taking care of those affected,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert wrote on Twitter.

Through its Twitter account, the Trier police department has asked area residents not to spread disinformation or to post videos and pictures of the deadly incident online.

This is a developing story.