FRANKFURT AM MAIN // A car ploughed into pedestrians in the southern German city of Heidelberg on Saturday, injuring three people, said police, who shot and wounded the driver.
After the crash, which injured one person seriously, the driver escaped on foot armed with a knife onto a busy city centre street.
Officers tracked him down with help from witnesses and opened fire on the suspect who was “seriously wounded”, police said.
Police said it was not clear if the man had acted intentionally, adding: “We are continuing to investigate. As soon as we know more we will inform the public.”
A police spokesman later said there were no indications the attack was terrorist in nature.
Germany's daily Bild newspaper reported that the suspect was suffering from psychiatric troubles, but authorities have made no comment on that claim.
The country has been on high alert since a Tunisian man rammed a lorry into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in December, killing 12 people. He was shot dead days later by police in Italy.
That attack evoked memories of the July lorry assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian ISIL sympathiser.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters