LEIPZIG — A driver in an SUV ploughed into a crowd in the center of Leipzig in eastern Germany on a pedestrian shopping street, killing two people and injuring about two dozen others before police apprehended the suspected assailant. Authorities said they did not know the motivation for the attack.

The incident occurred at about 4:45 p.m. on Grimmaische Strasse, according to emergency services workers. The driver turned from Augustus Square into Grimmaische Street at high speed and continued about 500 metres towards Naschmarkt Square. Witnesses said the car appeared to have been stopped by a retractable bollard. A damaged Volkswagen SUV with a person on top was seen speeding through the pedestrian zone, according to Radio Leipzig. Photographs showed the vehicle's windscreen was shattered and its bonnet was dented.

Two people were seriously injured and taken to hospital, fire chief Axel Schuh said. He said about 20 additional people were affected. About 40 firefighters, 40 paramedics, and two helicopters were deployed to the scene.

Bodies were covered with sheets on the pavement. Police set up a cordon to deter onlookers, and shops in the area were ordered to close.

Many people nearby flocked to St Nicholas church to seek shelter or process their experience, church superintendent Sebastian Feydt said. He said the church would remain open to visitors until further notice. Leipzig is located southwest of Berlin and has more than 630,000 inhabitants, making it one of the biggest cities in eastern Germany.

Last year, two people were killed in Mannheim when a 40-year-old German man drove a car into a group of pedestrians. An attack by an Afghan asylum seeker on a trade union demonstration in Munich weeks earlier killed two people and injured more than 40, including several children. In December 2024, several people were killed in a car-ramming attack by a Saudi doctor on a Christmas market in Magdeburg. A stabbing attack by a Syrian man at a festival in Solingen took place months before the Magdeburg incident.