Two die as car drives into crowd in Germany

BERLIN, Mar 04 (Reuters): A car drove into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring 11 others, overshadowing carnival celebrations in the region where police had been on alert for attacks.

Police detained the driver, who appeared to have ploughed intentionally into the crowd given the speed at which he was driving, prosecutors said in an act Interior Minister Nancy Faeser labelled "horror in broad daylight".

He did not appear to have been politically or religiously motivated, but there were reasons to believe he was psychologically unwell, said Mannheim Chief Public Prosecutor Romeo Schluessler. Prosecutors have initiated investigative proceedings against the suspect, a 40-year-old German man from the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder.