1 dead, several injured after vehicle drives into crowd
René Priebe/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least one person was killed and several injured when a car drove into a crowd of people in Mannheim, southwestern Germany, on Monday, police said.
“According to current findings, a car drove into a group of people in Mannheim city center,” the force said in a statement. “According to the current status of the investigation, one person was killed and several people were injured.”
“No information can be given yet on the number and severity of the injuries,” the police added. “As part of the search measures that were immediately initiated, a suspect was identified and arrested. No further, reliable information can currently be released beyond the information published so far.”
Police said that all bridges and main roads were under their control. Police also appealed to the public to stay away from the city center.
Video footage from Paradeplatz in the center of Mannheim showed shoppers standing outside a police cordon with objects strewn across the road, including a shoe. First responders could be seen tending to at least one apparently injured person.
Mannheim has a population 326,000 and lies about 52 miles south of Frankfurt.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Zoe Magee contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — South Korean investigators are seeking an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, according to the Yonhap news agency.
A joint investigation team reportedly announced on Monday they sought the warrant on insurrection and abuse of power charges after Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.
Under South Korea’s constitution, if a sitting president is accused of insurrection, the police have the authority to arrest him while he is still in office.
A court will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon, which would mark the first presidential arrest in the country’s history.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
The move sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
Earlier this month, however, Yoon vowed to “fight until the last moment” and said that he had never intended to disrupt the “constitutional order” when he ordered hundreds of troops into the National Assembly on Dec. 3.
The public reaction has been complex and varied, reflecting the deep political, social, and generational divides in South Korea. But overall there is a mass consensus that putting the country under martial law was an inexcusable action, no matter what motivated the president to do so.
“It was an unthinkable, unimaginable situation,” Seo Jungkun, a professor at Kyunghee University in Seoul, previously told ABC News. “President Yoon attempted to suspend the functions of the national assembly. He ordered the removal of lawmakers, therefore he could be charged with treason,” Seo explained, referring to a testimony by Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, who oversaw the special forces dispatched to the National Assembly on the night of the martial law declaration.
ABC News’ Joohee Cho and Hakyung Kate Lee contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “revenge” on Friday after the Israeli military said one of the four bodies recently released by Hamas did not include a hostage.
Hamas, the militant group that governs the war-torn Gaza Strip, said it had handed over the remains of four deceased Israeli hostages on Thursday: 32-year-old Shiri Bibas; her two children — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 8 1/2 months; and 84-year-old Oded Lifschitz.
After conducting a forensic analysis, Israeli officials positively identified three of the returned bodies as Lifschitz and the Bibas children but said the fourth was not that of their mother nor any other hostage, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which accused Hamas of committing a “very serious violation” of the current ceasefire agreement.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. “Not only did they kidnap the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small babies. In an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her little children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin.”
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he added.
Hamas said in a statement Friday that it “will examine these claims very seriously” and “will announce the results clearly.” The group also called for the return of the body that Israel said is that of a Palestinian woman.
“We point out the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies, which may be the result of the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians,” Hamas added.
The IDF, citing “the assessment of the professional authorities,” said Ariel and Kfir Bibas “were brutally murdered in captivity in November 2023 by terrorists.” Their father, 35-year-old Yarden Bibas, was also kidnapped during the Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but he survived and was freed earlier this month.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director-general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office, said in a statement Friday that the remains of Shiri Bibas were mixed with other human remains beneath the rubble of the place where she was being held in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes “deliberately” destroyed the area, “killing her and her children.”
“Netanyahu himself is the one who issued the orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he is the one who bears full responsibility for killing her and her children in a horrific and brutal manner,” Al-Thawabta added, noting that the Israeli military has killed more than 30,000 Palestinian women and children in Gaza since the current war began.
A spokesperson for Nir Oz, the kibbutz in southern Israel where the Bibas family were abducted from their home, issued a statement Friday apparently in response to Netanyahu vowing “take revenge.”
“We woke up to a difficult morning,” the kibbutz spokesperson said. “At the same time, we adhere to our values and the clear demands of the Bibas family at this time: Release, not revenge.”
Hamas is expected to free another six living hostages on Saturday followed by four more bodies next week as part of the agreed terms for the first phase of the ceasefire, which began Jan. 19 and is supposed to last 42 days.
Negotiations to set the terms for the second phase have not started, but Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that mediators are pushing to have talks begin as soon as possible to allow enough time for discussion before it begins. Hamas has accused Israel of avoiding talks and says it’s ready to negotiate.
(LONDON) — Dominique Pelicot, 72, has been given the maximum sentence of 20 years in the massive trial that has shaken France and shocked the world.
Pelicot and the 50 codefendants have all been found guilty, with all except one having been charged with rape.
The trial began on Sept. 2. Hearings took place for nearly three months and included testimony from Gisèle herself, who has become a feminist icon in France and across the world.
Prosecutors demanded the maximum sentence of 20 years for Dominique Pelicot and 10 years or more for most of the other co-defendants, if they’re found guilty. Dominique Pelicot had asked his family to “accept his apologies.”
Forty-nine of the 50 other co-defendants face aggravated rape or attempted rape charges. One co-defendant is accused of sexual assault and could face up to four years in prison.
Dominique Pelicot testified during the trial in Avignon that he mixed sedatives into Gisèle Pelicot ‘s food and drink so he could rape her, and that he recruited at least 50 other men via an online chat forum and invited them over to the family home where they are alleged to have raped and sexually abused Gisèle Pelicot. Dominique acknowledged in court that he’s guilty of the allegations and that his co-defendants understood what they were doing, The Associated Press reported.
The alleged abuse took place for almost a decade in their home in Provence, from 2011 to 2020. Gisèle has since divorced her husband.
Dominique Pélicot collected 20,000 photos and videos and stored the evidence, which later helped lead prosecutors to the 50 other defendants — “although about 20 others haven’t yet been identified,” The AP has reported.
She refused to stay anonymous, saying in court at one point during the hearings that she wants women who have been raped to know that “it’s not for us to have shame — it’s for them,” per The AP.
ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge and Hugo Leenhardt contributed to this report.
