One person has been killed and several others have been injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd of people in the city centre of Mannheim, western Germany.
Mannheim police said a “lone” suspect had been arrested and there is no evidence of a second perpetrator.
The police have asked the public to avoid the area, but said that there is currently no further danger to the public.
No information has been given about the number of people injured or the severity of their injuries.
Police and rescue services have cordoned off a large part of the city centre as the investigation continues.
No details about the suspect or their potential motivation have been shared by police at this stage.
The incident comes at a time of heightened security for Mannheim’s annual carnival. There was a parade through the city centre on Sunday, with major events scheduled for Tuesday.
Police have not said whether there will be a change to the schedule in light of the incident.
Police have not confirmed if the incident was a deliberate attack – only that a car drove into a group of people, and that a suspect has been arrested.
But, Germany has endured a number of violent attacks over the last year, which have left several people dead and hundreds injured.
Nine months ago, also in Mannheim and only a few blocks away from where Monday’s attack is believed to have taken place, an Afghan man stabbed several people, killing a policeman.
Then, in August, another knife attack left eight people injured and three dead in Solingen. The Syrian man who was charged with the crime was suspected of links with the Islamic State terrorist group.
In December a man rammed a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, leaving six dead and 299 injured. A 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist was arrested.
In January, a 28-year-old Afghan asylum seeker attacked a group of small children in a park in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old child and a passer-by who tried to help the boy.
And in February, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a crowd, injuring more than two dozen people. A mother and child later died from their injuries.