Judge orders German car-ramming suspect to psychiatric hospital

Emergency services stand at the entrance to Grimmaische station in Leipzig, Germany, Monday, May 4, 2026. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

A man suspected of ploughing a car into a crowd in the German city of Leipzig, killing two people, was ordered into a psychiatric hospital by a judge on Tuesday.

The judge found “compelling reasons” to believe that the 33-year-old suspect carried out the attack “in a state of at least significantly diminished responsibility”, prosecutors in Leipzig said in a statement.

The German national allegedly drove the vehicle Monday at high speed down a main street in the historic centre of the eastern city, leaving two people dead and several others wounded.

Germany has been shaken by a series of car-ramming attacks in recent years, including one targeting a Christmas market in 2024 in Magdeburg, and others in Berlin and Munich.

The suspect in Leipzig was treated in a specialist psychiatric hospital from April 17 to 29, “due to his mental condition and with his consent”, police and prosecutors revealed on Tuesday.

Authorities said they do not believe that the suspect, who was arrested at the scene, had any political or religious motive for the act -- but believe the car ramming was deliberate.

Prosecutors allege that the man “wanted to kill and seriously injure as many people as possible”.

He had previously come to the police’s attention this year for “making threats and for defamation-related offences,” they said, without elaborating.

Regional health officials said in a separate statement to AFP that during his stay at the hospital he did not present a danger to himself or others.

“There were therefore no medical grounds to prevent the patient, who was in the clinic of his own free will, from leaving the clinic or to detain him there against his will,” they said.

Authorities declined to give further details about his condition, citing patient confidentiality.

A 63-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man, both German citizens, were killed in Monday’s incident.

Six other people aged between 21 and 87 were injured, two of them seriously, police said.

More than 80 people also received care “due to the psychological impact of what they experienced,” they said.

‘Deeply affected’

The suspect is being investigated on suspicion of double murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, according to the police, who believe he acted alone.

He was expected to appear in court later Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the street where the deadly incident happened was still cordoned off as police searched the area.

At a church in the grounds of a nearby university, Heidi Rheinsdorf said she had travelled to Leipzig to show support to the local community.

Wiping back tears, the 32-year-old told AFP she was “shocked” when she heard about the car-ramming, adding: “I just don’t understand why (the alleged perpetrator) did it.

“I just feel so sorry for the people.”

University student Dalyan Unland, 20, said he was “deeply affected by the fact that people died... in a place where I walk every day”.

Lynn Sue Leiste said she had to muster all her courage to come and lay two white roses and a candle at a makeshift memorial at the church.

The 25-year-old said she had been “extremely worried” as her sister was in the street at the time.

The perpetrator “must be locked up forever”, she said, adding that “security measures really could have been strengthened”.

Many of the deadly car rampages Germany has seen in recent years were carried out by people who were found to have psychological problems.

The deadliest involved a Tunisian man with jihadist motives who ploughed a stolen truck through a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, claiming 13 lives.

In 2024, a Christmas market in Magdeburg was targeted by a Saudi man, who drove a car into the crowd, killing six people and injuring more than 300.