Dozens injured as car hits crowd in suspected attack in Munich
A man who drove into a crowd of people in Munich on Thursday morning probably did so deliberately, Bavaria’s minister president said. At least 28 people were injured, some of them seriously. Children are among the injured.
According to police, the driver was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was known to the authorities for shoplifting and drug offences.
He had been driving behind a police car and a group of demonstrators from the Ver.di trade union when he suddenly accelerated and overtook the police car, hitting the demonstrators from behind. He was arrested at the scene. Police fired shots during the arrest.
“This is probably an attack. Many elements point in this direction,” minister president Markus Söder said at the scene.
"This is not the first attack of this kind …something fundamental has to change in Germany"
The union said it was “shocked and appalled” by the attack and condemned an “assault” on the procession of demonstrators, some of whom had their children with them.
“This is not the first attack of this kind,” Söder wrote later on X. “Sympathy and coming to terms with the past are important. But something fundamental has to change in Germany.”
In December, a 50-year-old Saudi national drove his car into crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring 200. An attack at a market in Berlin in 2016 left 12 people dead.
Security policy
The Munich Security Conference starts in the city on Friday, 2km from the scene of the incident. More than 60 heads of state and 100 ministers are expected from Thursday afternoon for the world’s most important gathering of security policy experts.
American vice-president JD Vance, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and German chancellor Olaf Scholz will be present.
The motive of the perpetrator is still being investigated, according to Bavarian Interior minister Joachim Herrmann. So far, there are no indications that there is a connection with the security conference, he said.
Germans go to the polls on 23 February in a general election, after the coalition of the Social Democrats, Free Democratic party and Greens collapsed in November. The campaign has been dominated by debate about public security and immigration.
A police officer uses a dog to search the car at the scene where a man drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Munich 13 February 2025 © PHOTO MICHAELA STACHE / AFP
Related news
