Shooting incident: Production of Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS halted at Germany's Sindelfingen plant

Production of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS at the Sindelfingen plant is temporarily halted after a shooting incident yesterday left two dead.

Work at the Sindelfingen plant was stopped immediately and police were called to the scene.

Local news reports say a 53-year old perpetrator disarmed and overpowered by the company’s security personnel, but one person died at the scene from gunshot wounds, while another died in the hospital. It also added that production of the two aforementioned models will not continue until next week.

Mercedes-Benz said the persons involved are all employees of an external service provider.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic news from Sindelfingen this morning. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all colleagues on site. Following the incident, we confirm that two persons have died. One person is in police custody.

“The persons are employees of an external service provider. There is no longer any danger to the population and colleagues in Sindelfingen,” said the company yesterday evening.

Opened in 1915, the Sindelfingen is also known as Factory 56, renamed after a 730 million Euros upgrade to turn it into a highly digitized, zero-carbon factory powered by solar panels that store excess energy in reused, old high voltage batteries that can no longer power electrified Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but are still good enough for energy storage.

Apart from the S-Class and EQS, the Sindelfingen plant also makes the E-Class, GLC, CLS, and AMG GT 4-Door models.

The incident has no impact on Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, as both our local market S-Class and EQS models are locally assembled (CKD) at the company’s plant in Pekan, located within the DRB-Hicom’s automotive manufacturing campus.

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