Car 'drives at crowd' in Germany as police open fire with manhunt for occupants

Car 'drives at crowd' in Germany as police open fire with manhunt for occupants Police in Germany are searching for the occupants of a BMW after it was allegedly driven at a crowd in a town near Hannover injuring up to five people A car has "driven at a crowd" with police opening fire on the vehicle and the occupants fled on foot. A manhunt is now underway after the BMW appeared to intentionally target a group of people in the town of Neustadt am Rübenberge, near Hanover, Germany on Monday night, according to police. It is understood that up to five people were injured and taken to hospital with some in a serious condition. A police car was nearby at the time of the incident and shot at the BMW before other emergency services arrived, but they were unable to catch the occupants. Police do not have a clear figure on how many people were in the BMW but say that the car was abandoned with those inside fleeing. So far police have been unable to catch the culprits but detectives believe the individuals involved are known to each other. It is being treated as a deliberate act to target the crowd of people, a police spokesperson told local media although the exact motive and circumstances are not clear. "The sequence of events and the precise involvement of those involved are still part of the ongoing investigation," the spokesperson said, reported Allgaeuer Zeitung. The area has been cordoned off and the roads Herzog-Erich-Allee and Hannoversche Straße remain closed in both directions between Ludwig-Enneccerus-Platz and Am Schützenplatz this morning. A spokesperson for the force told Zeit: “We are not investigating a terrorist attack.” It comes after German police shot dead a man suspected who drove a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival in July, killing a woman and injuring 29 people. Abdul Ballout, 21, rushed at police with a weapon before being shot by police, officials said. The suspect was tracked down to an allotment garden in Spandau, West Berlin. Authorities had previously issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying he may be armed and dangerous. And in May police opened fire on a car which rammed into a packed street in the city centre of Leipzig. Two people were killed and several more injured with the suspect accused of the attack having been released from a psychiatric hospital a day earlier.