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Car drives into Munich crowd, injures 28 in suspected attack
At least 28 people have been injured after a car drove into a crowd of people in Munich, with the state premier saying it was probably an attack.
Police said a car approached police vehicles stopped by a demonstration held by the Verdi union before speeding up and hitting people.
A police spokesperson said the man suspected of driving the car on Thursday local time has been identified as a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker.
Police said they were able to detain the driver of the car and did not consider him to pose any further threat.
“One person is lying on the street and a young man has been taken away by the police. People are sitting on the ground, crying and trembling,” a reporter for the local BR broadcaster wrote in a post on X.
Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said the driver appears to have acted intentionally.
“I must tell you it looks like this was an attack,” Mr Soeder told reporters.
Munich is currently preparing for a top-level security conference due to be attended by US Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Munich Security Conference is set to start on Friday and senior officials, including Mr Vance and Mr Zelenskyy, are due to start arriving later in the day.
A passer-by said he witnessed the incident from a window of a neighbouring office building.
He said the Mini Cooper had threaded its way between the police vehicles and then accelerated.
Firefighters said at least 20 people were injured when the car drove through the crowd. Â Â (Reuters: Wolfgang Rattay)
The incident took place near Munich’s central train station — about 1.5 kilometres from the security conference venue — where people were participating in a demonstration linked to a strike organised by the Verdi trade union.
The union said it did not yet have any information on the incident.
Security was already in sharp focus in Germany ahead of a federal election next week and following a string of violent attacks.
ABC/Wires