A man intentionally drove a car into a crowd at a Carnival parade in a small town in central Germany, injuring around 30 people including children, officials said Monday. The driver, a local 29-year-old German citizen was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen near Kassel, about 280 k (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, prosecutors said. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide.

A spokesman for Frankfurt prosecutors, Alexander Badle, said in a statement that “about 30 people” were injured. They were taken to surrounding hospitals, some with life-threatening injuries.

The suspect was also injured, said Badle.

“This is a terrible act committed against people who simply wanted to celebrate Carnival,” said Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, where Volkmarsen is located. He declined to comment on reports that a second person was detained following the crash.

Beuth said about a third of those injured were children, who had come to watch the parade and collect candy that’s traditionally thrown into the crowds at Carnival celebrations in Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery. She also thanked the police and all medical personnel involved.

Emergency responders set up a makeshift clinic in a town pharmacy to treat casualties with minor injuries, the regional Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.
The crash came amid the height of Germany’s celebration of Carnival, with the biggest parades in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz. Yet, in western Germany several cities cancelled their carnival parades at short notice Sunday, citing severe weather conditions including gusty winds and heavy rains.

In Cologne, the famous school and neighbourhood parades were abandoned and in nearby Duesseldorf the carnival celebrations on the city’s glitzy Koenigsallee boulevard were also called off.

Other cities across Germany also called off their carnival activities because of the storm, including Emmerich, Essen and Salzkotten in the west as well as Heiligenstadt in Thuringia in central Germany. In Fulda in central Germany, the traditional children’s parade with around 1,000 participants and up to 30,000 spectators was also canceled.
All other Carnival parades in the state of Hesse were ended after the crash as a precaution.