Police detains suspect after a shootout at a Mercedes-Benz plant located in southwestern Germany

On Thursday, a shooting took place at a Mercedes-Benz plant in southwestern Germany that left two people dead, and the police arrested a suspect following the incident. The incident prompted calls for Germany’s government to strengthen its gun laws further. The suspect has been identified as a 53-year-old man. Mercedes-Benz confirmed that both victims were employees of an external service provider. The Stuttgart prosecutor’s office confirmed the death of the second person and stated that no one else was injured.

The police have been working under the assumption that a single perpetrator was responsible for the shooting and that no one from outside the factory was involved. This shooting is the latest in a series of mass shootings in Germany in recent years, many of which have been linked to extremism.

After a gunman opened fire in a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in Hamburg in March, killing six people, the German government vowed to tighten the country’s gun laws. Germany banned certain high-capacity magazines in 2020, and gun owners undergo a five-year check to determine whether they are justified in owning a weapon. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated that the government will re-examine the firearms laws after the recent incident.

The Social Democrats, Faeser’s party, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party have both supported stricter gun laws. The German police union has also called for a swift legislative response to reduce the number of guns available. The Sindelfingen site, about 17 kilometers southwest of Stuttgart, produces Mercedes-Benz’s flagship S-Class luxury sedan and employs about 35,000 people.

Mercedes-Benz assured the public that locals and colleagues working in Sindelfingen are not at risk. Emergency responders and police were still on the scene of the incident, and the emergency services were alerted about the shooting at 7:45 am (0545 GMT). In 2012, a shooting took place at a factory site belonging to technology firm 3M in the western German town of Hilden, killing one person and injuring four others.