Two dead in shooting at Mercedes-Benz plant in Germany

By Nadine Schmidt and Hanna Ziady, CNN

Two men have died after a shooting at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, southern Germany on Thursday, police and the company said.

The perpetrator, a 53-year old man, has been arrested and there is no longer any danger to employees at the plant, the Ludwigsburg police said on Twitter. Police officials said the incident was not a “rampage.”

One of the men died in hospital after being severely injured in the incident, police added. Nobody else was harmed.

The victims of the shooting, both 44, and the perpetrator were employed by an external service provider, according to Mercedes Benz.

Police said they were still investigating the motive for the attack, which occurred at around 7:45 am local time (1:45 am ET).

The shooter “entered the factory hall and shot at two people. Security guards seized the suspect and handed him over to police, who encountered no resistance as they arrested him,” the police added in a statement.

“The factory hall was evacuated and workers are currently being cared for by police and the company’s support staff.”

Mercedes-Benz said in a statement that work has been suspended until the end of the week in the affected part of the factory. The rest of the plant continues to operate “on schedule,” the company added.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic news from Sindelfingen this morning. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all colleagues on site,” it said.

Founded in 1915, the site in Sindelfingen is the automaker’s longest-running factory and employs 35,000 people, according to the company’s website. It produces the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class.

Shootings in Germany

Shootings in Germany are rarer than in the United States, but Thursday’s incident comes just two months after a gunman killed six people, as well as an unborn child, at a Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Hamburg, before turning the gun on himself.

Gun control laws mean firearms are largely kept out of the public eye, and those laws have been tightened in recent years following several shooting incidents.

German citizens require a weapons possession card to own or buy a gun, and a weapons license to use or carry a loaded gun.

A new Weapons Act was introduced in 2003 after a school shooting in Erfurt that left 16 people dead. In January 2022, one person was killed and three others injured after a man opened fire on students in a lecture hall at Heidelberg University in southwestern Germany.

And in 2020, a mass shooting at two shisha bars in Hanau killed several people.

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