02 Jan 2019; DW: A man has driven a car at groups of pedestrians in the cities of Bottrop and Essen, injuring eight, including foreign nationals. Police say there are signs that the driver is mentally ill and holds xenophobic views.
A man drove a car into pedestrians in two neighboring German cities overnight to New Year's Day, injuring five people in what police say could be attacks motivated by the xenophobic attitude of the driver.
Shortly after midnight, the 50-year-old man is reported to have driven a silver Mercedes deliberately at one male pedestrian in Bottrop, who managed to avoid being hit. The driver then continued on toward the downtown, where he rammed into a group of people standing next to the street, injuring at least eight, some seriously.
The man also tried to drive into a group of people waiting at a bus stop in the neighboring Ruhr city of Essen, before he was stopped and arrested by police.
According to the police, the victims included a 46-year-old Syrian woman, who was seriously injured, her 48-year-old husband and their 16 and 17-year-old daughters; a 4-year-old boy and his 29-year-old mother from Afghanistan; a 10-year-old Syrian girl; and a 34-year-old German national of Turkish heritage.
In the afternoon following the attack, the State Attorney's Office in Essen requested an arrest warrant for the suspect on multiple counts of attempted murder. A judge granted the request the same evening.
State Interior Minister Herbert Reul said the driver had "the clear intention of killing foreigners" and that the incident "had to be taken very seriously."
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