Police in the western German city of Mannheim have asked the public to stay away from the downtown area and keep inside their homes. Mannheim is a city of about 300,000 people located south of Frankfurt.
Police would not disclose what prompted the large law enforcement presence in the city center but a spokesperson said the incident had been reported as “a life-threatening deployment situation.”
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Police spokesperson Stefan Wilhelm told n-tv television that an “incident” occurred at around 12:15 p.m. in the Paradeplatz area of downtown Mannheim that triggered a large police deployment. He said he couldn’t give details. Authorities pushed an alert on the Katwarn app telling people in Mannheim to avoid the city’s downtown area due to a big police deployment. Katwarn is used by officials to communicate information about major emergencies such as thunderstorms, militant attacks or fires.