A German man is jailed for life for a car-ramming at a carnival market in Mannheim that killed two people and injured several others.
MANNHEIM: A German man has been sentenced to life in prison and ordered into psychiatric care for a deadly car-ramming at a carnival market.
The Mannheim Regional Court found the 40-year-old defendant guilty on Thursday of two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder.
Presiding judge Joachim Bock delivered the verdict for the attack in the southwestern city last March.
Prosecutors said the man, identified in media as Alexander S., drove his black Ford at speeds up to 80 kilometres per hour through a crowded pedestrian zone.
The intentional attack killed an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man and injured several others.
Authorities stated the defendant had been “suffering from a mental illness for many years” and found no evidence of a political motive.
After a taxi blocked his path, the man allegedly fired a blank pistol into the air before fleeing on foot.
He then shot himself in the mouth with the apparent aim of suicide as police moved to arrest him.
The Mannheim attack was one of three high-profile car-rammings in Germany within months.
In December, six people were killed at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, leading to a Saudi man’s arrest.
In February, a man drove into a Munich trade union rally, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother, with a 24-year-old Afghan suspect detained.
