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One day after the fatal car ride through Trier's pedestrian zone, the city and state of Rhineland-Palatinate remembered the victims with a memorial ceremony and a wreath-laying ceremony.

Several hundred people gathered in a square near the Porta Nigra and listened to speeches by the mayor, the prime minister and two clergymen.

On Tuesday afternoon, a 51-year-old man drove his off-road vehicle through the busy shopping street of the city at high speed just before 2 p.m.

Five people were killed and more than a dozen were injured, some of them life-threatening.

Many of the speakers were stunned by the fact, some of them had to fight back tears.

“Haven't we learned anything?” Asked Mayor Wolfram Leibe (SPD), before expressing his thanks to the rescue workers.

Yesterday these had "reached the limits of what is humanly reasonable".

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The fact that a nine-month-old baby and his father were among the victims caused particular concern.

Leibe closed his speech with a combative appeal: "Trier suffers, Trier mourns, but it does not give up."

Furthermore, he announced a minute of mourning for this Wednesday at 1:46 p.m., the time at which Bernd W. had driven his car into the pedestrian zone the day before.

The church bells should then ring so that the participants could pray together.

"Four Deadly Minutes"

Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) took the floor.

The politician mourned the "terrible event in our beautiful city".

Dreyer said nothing would justify this brutal act.

She then pondered "four fatal minutes" - that was how short the rampage lasted - the consequences of which many families now have to bear for a lifetime.

Dreyer also announced the establishment of a funeral clinic in order to better cushion the psychological long-term effects of such tragedies.

Then she thanked those who had come and would “show solidarity”.

Several hundred Trier had gathered in the square.

At the end of the celebration, a Protestant clergyman and, with Auxiliary Bishop Franz Josef Gebert, a Catholic clergyman, prayed together with the mourners.

“The horror leaves us speechless.

Why? ”It said, among other things, in the speech.