Four die as car ploughs through Germany pedestrian zone

 Shafaq News/ (BBC) A car has ploughed through a pedestrian area in the western city of Trier, killing four people including a nine-month-old baby, police say.

The driver, a 51-year-old local man, has been arrested. The prosecutor said the suspect had drunk a significant amount of alcohol.

Authorities said they were not working on the assumption that the incident was politically or religiously motivated.

The city's mayor described the scene as "horrible".

Witnesses said people screamed in panic and some were thrown in the air by an SUV travelling at high speed in Trier's Fleischstrasse pedestrianised street, near the city's famous Roman gate, the Porta Nigra.

The incident happened at around 13:45 local time (12:45 GMT), and the suspect drove for 1km (0.62 mile) "hitting people at random on his way" before being stopped by a police car, Trier police spokesman Karl-Peter Jochem said earlier.

The victims were two women, aged 25 and 73, a 45-year-old man and a nine-month-old baby.

Footage posted on social media appeared to show the presumed driver being held by several officers next to the damaged car. Police have been questioning the suspect, who was alone, and has been identified by German media as Bernd W.

Initial indications "suggest that psychiatric problems possibly played a role", prosecutor Peter Fritzen told reporters. The man did not have a criminal record, had no fixed address and was living in the car, which had been lent to him by someone else.