Mother and daughter die days after Munich car ramming

Mother and daughter die days after Munich car ramming

People placed candles at a makeshift memorial set up at the scene

A two-year-old girl and her mother died Saturday from injuries suffered in a car-ramming attack two days earlier in the German city of Munich that left 37 others injured, police said.

"Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother," police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told AFP.

A 24-year-old Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday.

Police said the asylum seeker, identified by German media as Farhad N., may have had Islamist extremist motives for the attack.

After the incident, the suspect uttered the words "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) to police officers and also prayed, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said on Friday.

The carnage came shortly before Germans head to the polls for a February 23 election where immigration is a key issue following a spate of attacks blamed on migrants.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a message on X that he was "deeply shocked and saddened by the death of the small child and the woman who succumbed to their injuries after the attack in Munich". 

"It is unimaginable what the relatives are going through. My deepest condolences go out to them. The country mourns with them."

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