At least 30 people, including children, were injured, some of them seriously, when a car drove into a carnival procession in a town in Germany’s Hesse state on Monday, according to the police.

The incident took place at around 2.30 am from the town of Volksmarsen, the BBC reported.

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The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen near Kassel, about 280 kilometres (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, prosecutors said.

He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide.

According to the local media, the attack did not seem to be politically motivated.

The prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt said that the suspect was receiving medical attention and would be brought before an investigating judge soon.

Beuth said about a third of those injured were children, who had come to watch the parade and collect candy that’s traditionally thrown into the crowds at Carnival celebrations in Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery. She also thanked the police and all the medical personnel involved.

Last week, Hesse state is still reeling from a racist shooting in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau. A 43-year-old man killed nine people with immigrant backgrounds before killing his mother and then himself.

Hanau is about 20 km east of Frankfurt, with a population of about 1,00,000.

In 2017, two persons, including the gunman, were killed during a shootout at a nightclub in the German city of Constance.

Last year, in October, several shots were fired in the eastern German city of Halle that left two people dead as the suspected assailants fled, according to the police.

One of the killings took place near a synagogue, while a witness reported seeing a gunman fire into a kebab shop.

Synagogues are often protected by police in Germany. Police in two other cities in eastern Germany, Dresden and Leipzig, stepped up security at synagogues there after the shooting in Halle.

(With inputs from agency)