Several others injured in incident in western Germany and one person in custody, police spokesperson says.

At least two person have been killed and several others injured when a car rammed into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim, authorities say.

Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm said a driver on Monday rammed into a group of people in Paradeplatz, a square in a pedestrianised area of Mannheim.

Police arrested the car’s driver and later said he had acted alone, with no broader threat seen for the public.

The driver is a 40-year-old German from the nearby state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said Thomas Strobl, the state interior minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, where Mannheim is based. He confirmed that two people died and that “several others are seriously injured”.

“The police are working hard to clarify what happened, the background to the crime and the perpetrator’s motivation,” Strobl added.

Paradeplatz, a major square in the downtown area, lies at the end of a pedestrianised street in Mannheim, which has a population of 326,000 and is 85km (53 miles) south of Frankfurt.

Mannheim University Hospital said it was treating three people from the crash, two adults and a child, German news agency dpa reported. It was not immediately clear whether other hospitals received patients.

Carnival weekend

The incident comes a day after Mannheim held a street parade, the main event in its annual carnival celebrations. Across Germany, many people have taken a long weekend off to celebrate carnival, including Rose Monday, when many cities hold parades.

German cities have seen several violent attacks recently, including stabbing sprees and car-ramming attacks.

Last month, a man drove a car into a trade union demonstration in the southern city of Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother.

In December a car-ramming attack targeted a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.

Mannheim itself was the scene of a stabbing attack at an anti-Islam rally last May in which a policeman was killed and five others wounded.

Before Monday’s incident in Mannheim, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that festivities were taking place “with high security precautions”.

She cancelled her visit to the Rose Monday parade in Cologne due to the events in Mannheim, a spokesperson for the minister said.