Authorities confirmed that a man drove a car into a crowd in Germany, killing two people and injuring 11, noting that a 40-year-old German citizen was arrested over the suspected attack.

The Police Department while briefing reporters said the vehicle rampage that happened in the southwestern city of Mannheim was a deliberate act.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X, that the sole suspect in the case lived in the city of Ludwigshafen, which lies directly across the river Rhine from Mannheim but is in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

He added that investigators saw no indication of an extremist or religious background, just as he revealed that there were concrete indications the perpetrator was suffering from a mental illness.

“Once again we mourn with the relatives of the victims of a senseless act of violence and fear for the injured,” adding: “We cannot accept this.”

“This act is one of several crimes in the recent past in which a car was misused as a weapon,” said the Baden-Wuerttemberg state interior minister Thomas Strobl.

The suspect had several previous convictions, including being fined in 2018 for “hate speech” after he posted a comment on Facebook next to a far-right image, prosecutor Romeo Schuessler said.

Officials confirmed reports the suspect shot himself in the mouth with a blank-firing pistol as he was being arrested, and needed medical treatment. His condition was described as stable but police had not yet been able to question him.

The driver ploughed a small black Ford passenger vehicle through a downtown pedestrian shopping area at around 12:15 local time (1115 GMT) where a carnival market was located with dozens of food stalls, rides and games.

An 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man were killed, some of them seriously, authorities said.

Police with heavy weapons soon shut down and evacuated the inner city as helicopters flew overhead and citizens were told to stay indoors via warning apps during the “life-threatening situation”.