At least 36 injured as car rams Munich crowd
The injury toll from a car ramming a crowd in Munich has risen to 36 as police reveal why they believe a body builder from Afghanistan allegedly carried out the brutal attack.
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A haunting photo of the Afghan bodybuilder posing with the car he allegedly ploughed into a crowd in Munich has emerged.
Two people, including a two-year-old whose mum was also hurt, are fighting for their lives in the aftermath of the incident in Munich which injured a total of 36 people.
Police say 24-year-old Afghan Farhad Noori, whose bid for asylum was recently rejected, is suspected of carrying out the horror attack in his Mini Cooper which left a further eight people severely injured and 10 more moderately hurt.
“We could see a certain Islamist orientation,” Munich police spokesman Guido Limmer said, adding they have searched Noori’s phone.
Prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told The Sun the suspect was a bodybuilding “Islamic extremist” who said “Allahu Akbar” when he was arrested.
“(He) gave an explanation that I would summarise as religious motivation,” Mr Tilmann said.
Noori allegedly drove a white Mini Cooper into a street demonstration of 15000 striking workers near the city centre and was then shot at by officers.
The incident came on the eve of a high-profile international conference in Munich, which was be attended by US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and amid an election campaign in which immigration and security have been key issues after a spate of similar attacks.
Police told Reuters they had “indications of an extremist motive” and the investigation had been handed to the regional prosecutor’s office and counter-terrorism police.
The state premier of Bavaria Markus Soeder told a press conference that the incident was “just terrible” and that “it looks like this was an attack”.
Soeder’s Bavarian CSU party and its national sister party the CDU have demanded tougher curbs on migration after a series of similar attacks which have shocked the country.
“This is not the first incident … we must show determination that something will change in Germany,” Soeder said.
“This is further proof that we can’t keep going from attack to attack.”
Noori first applied for asylum in 2016 but was rejected by German authorities, however, officials told Reuters Noori was able to remain legally in the country because he had found work.
Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect was also known to police for drug and shoplifting offences.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “awful” attack and promised severe consequences.
“From my point of view it is quite clear: this attacker cannot count on any mercy, he must be punished and he must leave the country,” Mr Scholz told reporters.
Immigration and security issues have dominated campaigning ahead of next Sunday’s German election, especially after other violent incidents in recent weeks.
The ground at the scene of the incident was littered with items including glasses, shoes, thermal blankets and a pushchair.
Eyewitness Alexa Graef said she was “shocked” after seeing the car drive into the crowd “which looked deliberate”.
“I hope it’s the last time I see anything like that,” she said.
An eyewitness who was among the striking workers told the local BR42 website that he “saw a person lying under the car” after it drove into the crowd.
Verdi union president Frank Werneke said in a statement: “We are deeply upset and shocked at the awful incident during a peaceful demonstration by our Verdi colleagues.”
The incident comes a day before the city is due to host the high-profile Munich Security Conference.
Mr Vance and Mr Zelenskyy are among those arriving on Thursday to attend the two-day security meet.
The latest suspected attack comes amid an already inflamed debate on immigration after several similar incidents, most recently in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last month.
Two people were killed in a knife attack including a two-year-old child.
After that attack a 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested whom authorities say has a history of mental illness.
In December, six people were killed after a car ploughed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, also wounding hundreds.
A Saudi man was arrested after that attack, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser saying he also appeared to be mentally disturbed.
“We have to continue with deportations … even to Afghanistan, a very difficult country,” she said. “We will try to do everything to achieve this.”
The Scholz government has moved to make asylum rules stricter and speed up deportations, including to Afghanistan.
In August, the German government sent back the first Afghan asylum seekers to their home country since the Taliban government’s return to power in 2021.
The German government’s policy drew criticism from Amnesty International’s secretary-general in Germany last year.
– with AFP
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Originally published as At least 36 injured as car rams Munich crowd