A driver led a car to a union demonstration in the Munich center on Thursday, injuring at least 28 people, including children, the authorities announced.
Participants in a demonstration by the Service Workers’ Union walked along a street around 10:30 am when the car exceeded a police vehicle after the collection, accelerated and plowed at the rear of the group, said the police.
The police arrested the suspect after shooting the car, said police chief Christian Huber. He added that at least 28 people would have been injured, some of them seriously.
A damaged mini was seen on the scene, as well as debris, including shoes.
“We pray for the victims – we hope that they all do it,” said Bavarian governor, Markus Söder, to journalists on the scene.
The mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, said that the children were part of the injured.
The suspect was a 24 -year -old Afghan asylum seeker, said Huber.
The Minister of the Interior of the State of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, confirmed that the man was an asylum seeker. He said officials believe that the demonstration was probably targeted at random.
The Minister of Justice of the State, Georg Eisenreich, said that a department of prosecutors who investigates extremism and terrorism examined the case.
Probably attack on the international conference
The incident follows a series of attacks involving immigrants in recent months which have pushed migration to the foreground of the campaign for the German elections on February 23.
Three weeks ago, a two -year -old boy and a man were killed in a knife attack in Aschaffenburg, also in Bavaria. An Afghan whose asylum application was rejected was the suspect in this attack.
This followed the knife attacks in Mannheim and Solingen last year, in which the suspects were immigrants from Afghanistan and Syria, respectively.
In a Christmas market that struck in Magdeburg in December, the suspect was a Saudi doctor who was previously drawn the attention of various regional authorities.
The main conservative block of Germany’s opposition, in which Söder is a leading figure, demanded a more difficult approach to irregular migration, calling many more people to be donated to the border and for an increase in deportations.
Reducing migration is also a basic problem for the extreme right alternative for Germany (AFD), which the polls have set up behind the conservatives. Other parties of the Federal Party have not yet been part of a coalition with AFD, which is being observed by the domestic intelligence agency for the right -wing extremism, allegations that the party rejects.
‘A terrible attack’
The government of the Center-Gauche Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that it had already done a lot to reduce irregular migration and that opposition plans are incompatible with German and European Union law.
Scholz described the last incident as “a terrible attack”.
“Whoever commits crimes in Germany will not only be punished severely and will have to go to prison, but must expect that he cannot continue his stay in Germany – and this is also worth for the countries where he is very difficult to send people back to “” he said.
Scholz noted that his government had expelled criminals sentenced to Afghanistan during a flight in August and is working to start again – “and not only once, but continuously”.
The Bavarian capital will see strong security in the coming days because the Munich security conference by three days, an annual rally of international officials of foreign and security policies, opens on Friday.
Herrmann said the authorities do not believe that the car was linked to the conference, but they must always determine the reason.
