As many as four foreigners, including three adults and one child, were injured after a car rammed into them in West Germany on Tuesday.
The New York Times quoted Interior Minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia Herbert Reul as saying that upon being detained and questioned by the police, the suspect started making derogatory remarks on foreigners.
"This is a case of a German deliberately driving into groups of people, people who for the most part were foreigners," the Interior Minister said.
"That means this man clearly intended to kill foreigners," Reul added.
The incident took place around 11:40 pm in the night when the suspect initially targeted a man in the Ruhr industrial region and then drove his car towards the city's downtown area injuring four people, including a woman who remains in life-threatening condition. After this, the man fled with his car to the city of Essen and targeted a queue that was waiting at a bus stop.
The unusual driving of the suspect became a matter of suspicion to the police, who immediately ordered the arrest of the suspect.
Meanwhile, local area police Chief Friederike Zurhausen, informed that the suspect was suffering from psychiatric illness, but no reports on his connection with any extremist groups have been found.