Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A man drove a car into a crowd of people during a carnival celebration in central Germany Monday, injuring at least 30 people, local authorities said.
Police in Volkmarsen, a city of about 7,000 in the central German state of Hesse, said the male driver of a Mercedes station wagon was arrested after the incident during the Rose Monday carnival parade.
Eyewitnesses told police the man deliberately drove into a crowd of parade-goers.
At least seven of victims sustained serious injuries, authorities said. Children were among the victims.
Authorities said the detainee is a 29-year-old German citizen from the area.
No motive had been determined but a terrorist attack could not yet be ruled out, the state's interior ministry said.
The Frankfurt Attorney General has taken over the investigation, local media reported.
As a precaution, all other carnival parades celebrating Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, were canceled in Hesse state. The parades take place on the Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Catholic season of Lent, and are especially prevalent in Germany's Rhineland region.
