‘Probably an attack’: Children among injured as car drives into Munich crowd

Munich: Thirty people, including two children, were injured when a car driven by an Afghan asylum seeker ploughed into a crowd of striking workers in Munich in what the state premier said was probably an attack, putting security back in focus before next week’s federal election.

The suspected attack on Thursday came as international leaders including United States Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gathered in the southern German city for the Munich Security Conference.

Police and emergency services near the car that was driven into demonstrators marching in Munich.Credit: Getty Images

The union members were marching along a street in Munich in the morning when the suspect’s Mini Cooper overtook a police vehicle following the gathering, accelerated and rammed into the back of the group, police said.

Officers arrested the 24-year-old suspect after firing a shot at the car, police said, adding the driver’s motive was unclear.

“It was probably an attack,” Bavarian state Premier Markus Soeder said.

Some of the victims suffered serious injuries. The car, with a battered front and a shattered windshield, was lifted onto a tow truck after investigators inspected it among debris including shoes, a broken pram and items of clothing.

Immigration and security issues have dominated campaigning before Germany’s February 23 election, especially after other violent incidents. Polls show the centre-right conservatives leading, followed by the far right.

Bavaria’s state Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, said officials believed the protest was likely targeted at random. A prosecutors’ department that investigates extremism and terrorism was looking into the case.

Police said the man, who lived in Munich and had a valid residence permit, was known to authorities from investigations in which he had been a witness because of a former job as a store detective.

His asylum application had been rejected, said Herrmann, but he had not been forced to leave due to security concerns in Afghanistan.

The crash came a before the start of the Munich Security Conference, which draws scores of foreign government officials to the city.Credit: AP

Migration and security dominate campaign

In December, six people were killed in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg and last month, a toddler and adult were killed in a knife attack in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg. Immigrants have been arrested over both attacks.

Conservative Friedrich Merz, frontrunner to be Germany’s next chancellor, said safety would be his top priority.

“We will enforce law and order. Everyone must feel safe in our country again. Something has to change in Germany,” Merz posted on X.

Merz has accused Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz of being soft on immigration and last month he broke a taboo by winning a parliamentary vote on asylum with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The AfD, in second place in the polls, also seized on the incident, with co-leader Alice Weidel focusing on the driver being an Afghan asylum seeker.

“Should this go on forever? Migration turnaround now!” Weidel posted on X.

Scholz said the perpetrator could not hope for leniency. “He must be punished and he must leave the country,” said Scholz.

Car accelerated into crowd, witnesses say

Police set up a gathering point for witnesses in the Loewenbraeukeller, one of Munich’s oldest beer halls. A passerby said he witnessed the incident from a window of a neighbouring office building.

The Mini Cooper had threaded its way between the police vehicles and then accelerated, he said. Another witness said she saw part of the incident from a building. The car accelerated and hit several people in the crowd, she said.

People in the crowd had been taking part in a strike held by the Verdi public sector workers’ union whose leader, Frank Werneke, expressed shock but said he had no further details. Bavaria’s interior minister said he did not suspect there was a connection to the Munich Security Conference, which starts on Friday.

Reuters, AP

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