A man opened fire in a production hall at a Mercedes factory in Sindelfingen, Germany, on Thursday, killing two people, police said, adding the suspect had been arrested.
Security staff detained the suspect in the hall at the Sindelfingen plant and handed him over to police, who arrested him without resistance, the police said.
The victims, both 44-year-old men, later died from their injuries. The motive for the attack is still being investigated.
Mercedes-Benz confirmed in a statement that two people had died and said they and the suspect were employees of an external service provider.
Bild daily reported that the suspect is an employee of a logistics company.
Around 35,000 people are employed at the Mercedes plant in Solingen, which produces the German car giant’s S-Class and premium Maybach models.
Also in Germany, a 57-year-old man on Thursday sparked an explosion at a block of flats, wounding 12 police officers and firefighters who had been responding to a call of distress, authorities said.
The blast happened inside an apartment in the high-rise building in Ratingen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, police said on Twitter.
Ten firefighters and two police officers were injured, some of them seriously, Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, told reporters.
The door of the flat was open when police got to the site but the blast then ensued. “The man, after he caused this explosion, closed the door again, retreated and started to set the place on fire,” said Reul.
A lifeless body was also found in the flat, Reul said, adding that it may be that of the suspect’s mother.
Police on Twitter referred to a “major operation” at the site.
The flat had apparently been doused with petrol or another flammable substance, Bild daily said.
The arrested man was a suspected Covid denier, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
