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Three people have been killed and dozens injured after a “deranged” man drove a large car into a huge crowd of people before leaping out of his car and attacking others at random with a knfe.

A 7-year-old boy is feared to be one of those killed in the horror, along with a woman in a city square in Graz, Austria.

According to Governor Hermann Schützenhöfer, a fourth person is fighting for their life while 33 others were also injured in the shocking incident.

He called the man “deranged”, adding: “There is no explanation, there is no excuse”.

Local news news outlets in the country reported the man, a 26-year-old Austrian with Bosnian roots, “deliberately” drove into a crowd of people this afternoon.

According to reports in Austria, police are not treating the situation as terror-related while Kleine Zeitung newspaper said he is thought to have been suffering with family problems and from mental health issues.

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After launching a ferocious attack with a knife, he was arrested by police and taken away.

The city’s mayor Siegfried Nagl is said to have witnessed the horror.

He told Kleine Zeitung newspaper he thought the driver deliberately steered towards pedestrians.

He said: “I myself have seen how a woman was knocked down.”

Local police confirmed that the incident happened today but would not give any details or confirm the number of dead and injured.

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Austrian public television ORF said the man had been arrested and that police had sealed off the area in Graz, which is the second largest city in Austria.

News outlets quoted unnamed witnesses as saying the man apparently ploughed his vehicle into the crowd at random, sending several people crashing into the windscreen and flying over the SUV.

Austria’s APA news agency said two bodies were lying near the scene, covered with blankets.

One witness told ORF they saved themself by diving into a shopping arcade.

They said: “I’ve been drinking on the main square cappuccino, as people started to scream, then was heard a howling engine.”