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LAST UPDATE | 24 Feb 2020
A CAR DROVE into a crowd at a festival in Germany this afternoon injuring “dozens” of people, including children, police have said.
The incident took place at a carnival procession in Volksmarsen, a town located around 280 kilometres south-west of Berlin. The driver of the car has been arrested by Northern Hesse police.
“There are dozens of injured, including some who are gravely hurt,” a police spokeswoman said.
Another police spokesperson added that children were among the injured in the incident in the state of Hesse.
Police have said they have not received reports of any deaths.
Police in Western Hesse state tweeted that all other carnival parades in the state today were ended after the crash as a precaution.
Police shut down the area to allow emergency crews to deal with the crash which took place in the small town with a population of 7,000.
A spokeswoman for police in Volksmarsen said “it is too soon” to say whether the driver drove into the crowd on purpose.
In many parts of Germany residents were celebrating Rose Monday before this incident took place, a highlight of the annual carnival festivities that sees adults and children dress up and attend parades where people play music and throw sweets from floats.
With reporting by Press Association and Orla Dwyer.
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Presbyterians at it again.
@Paul F. White: Apparently transubstantiation was mentioned
@Paul F. White: The driver was a 29 year old German national not of immigrant background, from Volkmarsen, the town where the parade was held. He has a criminal record but is not known to be an extremist.
Conflicting reports whether he was drunk / on drugs or not, authorities aren’t sure if this was a deliberate attack. He was beaten up by withness, second person was arrested and he was likely involved in beating him up.
Ask yourself why this happened in Germany and not Poland or Hungary.
@Podge: maybe because the driver and the car were in Germany….
@Podge: the far right aren’t as militant?
@Sea Graham: that’s it. Now keep going… Why does there seem to be more of this type of driver in Germany
@Podge: The driver was a 29 year old German national not of immigrant background, from Volkmarsen, the town where the parade was held. He has a criminal record but is not known to be an extremist.
Conflicting reports whether he was drunk / on drugs or not, authorities aren’t sure if this was a deliberate attack. He was beaten up by withness, second person was arrested and he was likely involved in beating him up.
@David Jordan: informative as always.
@Podge: readbthe story before you comment, numpty. We would not hear about a drunk/drugged driver driving into a crowd in Poland or Hingary because either the story would be censored or the incident would be too commonplace.
@Nina Wallenius: who would be censoring that information in Poland/Hungary or why in God’s name would it be so commonplace?
But none of it changes the fact that Germany/Sweden/France has had more attacks that mirror this incident than Poland or Hungary. Just ask yourself why.
If it was the far right we’d have heard about it by now.
Must be the far-right.
@Chewns: might be, might not be, why not just wait and see the facts first?
@Jim Buckley Barrett:
I was being sarcastic.
@Chewns: All attacks like this, be they committed by a fundamental islamist or a nazi, are far-right. Hope that clears things up for you.
@Chewns: could be… They have been pretty active as late. But it could be something else also. Maybe we should wait until the facts come out before we start blaming one group or another!
@Chewns: Yeah it’s the time and place for sarcasm….
@Chewns: you can’t be sarcastic on Monday, we haven’t recovered from the weekend yet.
@Terrence Edwards: how on earth do you come to that conclusion?
@Alan Currie: Religious fantatics who hate homosexuality, don’t like people with a different skin colour and are willing to use violence to achieve their goals. Sounds about right? As I said below, nobody would describe jihaddists as liberals.
@Terrence Edwards: the left are showing every bit as much intolerance these days, look at the rise of Antifa, and the view that anyone with a different view must be shut down or cancelled, and that everyone else must be far right. So let’s be clear that both left and right are capable of terrible things.
@Alan Currie:
Antifa has been around since the early 1930′s
and we will keep watch for as long as fascism exists.
When fascism is six foot under where it belongs, we will dissappear.
No Pasaran!!!
@Mark O Sullivan: Antifa behave like fascists by being violent against anyone who disagrees with them, often targeting innocents, so you are actually supporting fascism. Behaving like utter yobs on the streets is not exactly progressive for society. But sure, give that your support at your peril.
@Alan Currie:
You don’t understand what Antifa is.
To join the ranks all you have to do is stand up against fascism, be that storming the beaches of Normandy in 1944, blocking the racist mob in Charlottesville 2017 or writing a comment here in 2020.
An anti-fascist action makes you Antifa, and be in no doubt we will prevail.
No Pasaran!!!
@Alan Currie:
By the way you should learn what the word “fascism” means before you use it.
@Chewns: The car diver was a German national from the town, not of immigrant background. He has a criminal record. They don’t know if this was deliberate or not. Several witnesses say he looked very drunk, but authorities won’t confirm if he was drunk or on drugs. He was beaten up the the crowed, police arrested a second person, likely some one who bet him up.
@Terrence Edwards: there on going pogroms attacks against Catholics and other Christians in the west bank and Gaza by Islamist supporters which is not been reported on main media there populations is
disappearing at fast rate ..nobody seems to care ,isreal government said it local matter with Fatah and Hamas
@Mark O Sullivan: the irony is not lost on you, if you had any integrity for what you stand for you wouldn’t still have to hide behind masks and fake profiles. Most people thankfully have the intelligence to see them for what they are, the staggering hypocrisy is plain to see, I only hope you take your blinkers off, unless your life goal is to behave like a football yob.
@Mark O Sullivan:
Antifa are a bunch of wasters, they hide behind masks just as the KKK and IS did, telling.
@Raven:
I see on your twitter feed you spread fascist & far right conspiracy theories and propaganda.
It’s quite interesting how you negativly equate the wearing of a mask with the KKK while at the same time spreading the very same propaganda and bull**** that they do.
@Mark O Sullivan: Fascist and far right propaganda? Everything is far right to Antifa moron types.
Yes the KKK, Nazis, IS and Antifa are all sk#mbags, that interesting enough for you?
“A CAR DROVE into a crowd”
Was it Herbie or a Tesla on autopilot?
@Chewns: could have been KITT?
@Terrence Buckley, no one terms jihadists as far right due to their affiliation with religion, hope this clears it up for you and you can comment without condescension in future.
@Croagh Pat: Hi John, presume that comment was aimed at me? You got my name wrong so I wasn’t positive.
We’re talking about groups of religious literalists, who are a small subsection of a wider religion, who are intolerant of other races/religions, who are willing to use violent means to strike down their enemies, who don’t respect women and won’t accept homosexuality. Fundamental islam is a right wing ideology, similar to how fundamental Christianity is a right wing one.
Nobody is suggesting Jihadists are liberals.
God help them, hope they all make a good recovery.
Doesn’t look good when somebody’s head is imprinted through the front windscreen of that car
Coming soon to a town near you, if you keep the door open.
@David Fitzgerald: drunk drivers are here already.
@Nina Wallenius: true. But that wasn’t the case in Germany
Of for F*** SAKE….
This type of reporting is so racist, it sickens me.
You’ll have to elaborate Barry, what’s racist?
@Barry Doyle: there’s nothing remotely racist in this article.
@Barry Doyle: reporting like this is divisive and casts aspersions on the perpetrators’ religion and ideology…which are obviously only coincidental.
@Barry Doyle: You need to wake up Barry . Islam is a religion NOT a race Go and lie down
@Robert Preston: who said anything about Islam?
An end. Sooner or later.
What’s the world coming too
have your say