Two dead after shots fired at Mercedes plant in Germany

Police make arrest after incident at car manufacturer's factory in south of country

Police vans outside the Mercedes-Benz production site in Sindelfingen, Germany. Getty

Two people died and another was seriously injured after shots were fired at a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant in southern Germany.

Police said they made an arrest on Thursday after the incident at Factory 56 in Sindelfingen, which assembles the S-Class model.

Police said on Twitter employees were “no longer in any danger”.

"A 53-year-old man entered the hall at around 7.45am and shot two people," police said.

"Plant security employees arrested the suspect in the hall and handed him over to the police, who provisionally arrested him without resistance.

"The factory hall was evacuated and employees are being cared for by the police and the company's own support staff."

Both victims were 44-year-old men. Police and rescue workers are still at the site.

Mercedes also announced there had been two deaths.

The company confirmed an incident at the plant and said it was in touch with the authorities.

“We are in contact with the authorities and are trying to clarify the facts. The safety of the employees comes first,” the company said.

Car factories in Germany are well secured, with entry highly controlled. Incidents of any kind are extremely rare.

In 2012, a shooting at a factory site for technology company 3M in the western German town of Hilden left one dead and four injured.

In more recent gun-related incidents in Germany, a man shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah's Witness worship hall in Hamburg in March.

And in February 2020, a 43-year-old man killed nine people with a migration background in a right-wing extremist and racially motivated attack in the city of Hanau, east of Frankfurt, before shooting his mother and himself.

The previous year, in October 2019, a gunman who denounced Jews opened fire outside a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and killed two people.

Sindelfingen is one of Mercedes-Benz’s largest factories worldwide and produces upmarket luxury cars such as the S-Class sedan.

About 35,000 workers are employed there producing E-Class and S-Class luxury sedans and CLS and GLC coupes, according to the company’s website. It also houses planning, purchasing, and development and design departments.