By Dpa correspondents I Thursday, May 11, 2023
SINDELFINGEN – German police arrested a man who shot and killed two employees at a Mercedes-Benz factory site during production on Thursday, according to police.
Both of the men killed at the site in Sindelfingen were aged 44, the policeman said.
The Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office said it thought a single perpetrator was involved.
Plant security staff overpowered the suspected perpetrator, detaining him and handing him over to the police, officials said. He did not resist arrest.
He is to be brought before a magistrate in the course of the day. Police seized the weapon suspected to have been used in the killings.
The two victims worked for Rhenus, according to a spokeswoman for the logistics service provider. All three of the men involved in the incident were company staff members.
“I heard the shots, thought a pallet had fallen. Then someone came running excitedly and told us that shots had been fired. We all had to get out – and the company sent us home,” a woman working at the site told Bild newspaper.
“The guy is supposed to have emptied his entire magazine. He hasn’t been with us long, a year at most,” one of the suspect’s colleagues told the newspaper.
Staff at the plant were deeply concerned after the scene near Hall 56 and a large number were sent home, a reporter at the scene told dpa. It was not clear whether the shooter and the victims knew each other. The motives for the attack were unclear, the police said. It was also unclear how the weapon reached the plant premises.
“I would hope that maybe they would do a little bit more checks. If it’s so easy to get weapons in there, that could hit one of us,” a Mercedes employee said, saying he felt “queasy” ahead of his shift.
Police are still gathering information, he said, and staff are being provided with psychological support. Production continued later, aside from at the site of the crime. It was unclear when work would begin again at the assembly line where the deadly shooting took place.
German carmaker Mercedes-Benz expressed dismay over the incident. The tragic news from Sindelfingen has deeply shocked us, a company spokesman said.
“Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all colleagues on site.”
About 35,000 people work at the Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant, which is around 100 years old. Alongside the carmaker’s E-Class, the S-Class and its electric counterpart, the EQS, are also produced there.
