Suspect in deadly German car-ramming gives no information on motive and is ordered held in custody

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MANNHEIM, Germany (AP) — The suspect in a car-ramming in the German city of Mannheim that killed two people gave no information about his motive Tuesday as he appeared before a judge who ordered him held pending a possible indictment, investigators said.

The 40-year-old German man was arrested shortly after the car-ramming Monday at around noon on a busy pedestrian street in downtown Mannheim in southwestern Germany. Eleven people were injured, five of them seriously, and the latter were still being treated in hospitals on Tuesday.

Mourners laid flowers in the city center to honor the victims.

Mannheim prosecutors and state police said a district court in the city ordered the man kept in custody pending possible formal charges on suspicion of two counts of murder, five of attempted murder and 11 of bodily harm.

The investigators said in a statement that the suspect gave no information in his appearance before a judge, “so that his motive for the act is still unclear.” A search of his apartment in nearby Ludwigshafen also turned up no clues as to a motive.

The investigation so far points to mental illness, the statement added. The suspect is believed to have acted alone. Prosecutors and police said that objects the man had in his car and his home — including a blank gun and written documents — were being evaluated.

The suspect tried to kill himself by shooting himself in the mouth before he was arrested, Tuesday’s statement said. He was initially taken to a hospital but subsequently handed over to police.

Officials said on Monday that they had no indication of an extremist or religious motivation.

Prosecutors have said the man, whose identity was not revealed in line with German privacy rules, has previous convictions.

He served a short prison sentence for assault more than 10 years ago and was convicted for drunken driving. He had also been investigated for a hate speech offense on Facebook in 2018, for which he was fined, prosecutors said without giving further details.

Cars have been used as deadly weapons in other acts of violence in recent months in Germany.

Last month, a 2-year-old girl and her mother died two days after they were injured in a car-ramming attack on a union demonstration in Munich. A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested. Prosecutors said he appeared to have an Islamic extremist motive.

In December, six people were killed and more than 200 injured when a car slammed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The suspect is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative For Germany party.

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Dazio reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.