The 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker said he forced his car to Munich's union demonstrations and injured at least 28 people on suspicion of attacks that were expected to inflame tensions ahead of this month's election.
The car was a mini-cooper, who accelerated and plowed people behind the Verdi Union rally at 10:30am during a strike by public sector workers. Employees at daycare centres, hospitals, sanitation facilities and public swimming pools participated in work halts seeking higher wages and longer leave. More than 1,000 people reportedly were on the scene.
Among them were children, and some of the victims were seriously injured. Images in the media showed damaged cars and several bodies lying on the ground.
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz accused the car of “bad” during the February 23 election campaign that promoted security, immigration fears, far-right support and far-right support. “Accused of “flapping its non-resistance.”
“The perpetrator cannot expect tolerance,” he told reporters. “He must be punished and then leave the country.”
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz said he “imposes law and order decisively” as prime minister in X. “The safety of the German people will be our number one priority,” he said. “In our country, everyone has to feel safe again. Something has to change in Germany.”
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Anti-immigrant Alternative Für Deutschland Party (AFD), calls the incident “bad” and denies “national failure” by a colleague from the Mertz party in Bavaria, not deporting suspects I rebutted that. Listing the latest attacks, she states in X: “Should this last forever? Interesting about immigration now!”
Bavarian capital had already begun implementing stricter security measures before the Munich Security Conference, which will begin on Friday. This will be attended by top officials from around the world, including US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Authorities said they did not believe that the car's charges were related to the meeting.
News website Spiegel said the suspect was identified only as Farhad N, and arrived in Germany in December 2016 in search of asylum and posted Muslim content on social media prior to the incident. .
Bavarian state internal minister Joachim Hermann said the suspect is known to police in connection with theft and drug crimes.
Police confirmed that they fired one shot during their arrest, but it was unclear whether the suspect was injured or not. “As reported, the safest person is the driver of the car,” police said in X. At this time, we cannot confirm that. ”
The Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that one woman had died, but authorities did not immediately comment.
Munich mayor Dieter Reiter told the Daily Newspaper Build: “The police chief informed me that the vehicle was driving to a group of people and unfortunately many people were injured, including children. I am deeply shocked. My thoughts are It's in the wound.”
Two months ago, a car killed six people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg city in eastern Germany. Police have arrested a Saudi doctor who frequently expressed far-right sympathy on social media.
The Munich incident took place in a trial of murder and attempted murder after an Afghan suspected of Muslim sympathy last May, targeting a political rally in western Manheim. It came when it came. The defendant, identified by prosecutors as Sulaiman A, is accused of stabbing six people, including a 29-year-old police officer, during an attack on the anti-Islamic demonstrations, and suffering serious injuries.
In August, a 26-year-old Syrian asylum seeker stings with Muslim sympathy at a Western festival that left three dead and eight injured at a festival in the western city of Solingen. It is said that he caused a huge rampage.
Last month, a 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested after attacking children at a park in the southern city of Aschafenburg, killing a 2-year-old Moroccan boy and a 41-year-old German man who tried to intervene. .
Scholz pointed out the difficulty of deporting Afghan citizens as Germany does not have diplomatic ties with the ruling Taliban. However, he stressed that his central left-led government has taken steps to ensure that more suspects accused of violent crimes are returned to war-torn countries.
During the election campaign, particularly the central and far right, accusing Scholz's government of not stopping immigration crimes, but Scholz argued that the Conservatives' counter-proposed proposal violated national and EU laws.
In the aftermath of Aschaffenburg's attack, elections from the conservative CDU/CSU alliance Mertz called for a hard-line step back against irregular immigrants at the border. It was widely criticized for a violation of post-Nazi taboos, and Meltz said he was willing to accept the support of the far-right AFD in order to get a proposal through Congress.
The anti-Muslim AFD, which is investigating as a suspected extremist organization, is second in a poll of about 21%, after about 30% of CDU/CSU. All mainstream parties are excluded from the Governance Coalition, including the AFD.
Journalist Sandra Demmelber, who was reporting on the union strike in Munich, described the shocked witnesses on the scene. “There was someone lying on the street and a young man was taken away by the police,” she posted on X. Details are still unknown. ”
Another witness told local media that Mini attacked the woman with her child. “The mother and child were lying under the car.”
Claudia Weber of the Verdi Union described the scene as “unintelligible.” “We are totally shocked and feared our colleagues who were on the march,” she said. “I heard that the car purposely hit the demonstration. I hope no one dies.”
