A man ploughed a car into a union demonstration in Germany’s Munich on Thursday, injuring at least 28 people, including children. The authorities believe it was an attack.
The police have arrested a suspect, an Afghan asylum-seeker, for the crime, months after six people were killed and scores were injured after a Saudi doctor ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Germany’s Magdeburg.
Participants in a demonstration by the service workers’ union were walking along a street at about 10:30 a.m. when the car overtook a police vehicle, accelerated and ploughed into the back of the group, police said.
The police arrested the suspect after firing a shot at the car. Some of those injured were admitted to the hospital in a serious condition.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the man who allegedly drove the car into the protest cannot hope for leniency and must leave the country.
“This perpetrator cannot hope for any leniency. He must be punished and he must leave the country,” said Scholz.
“If it was an attack, we must take consistent action against possible perpetrators with all means of justice,” he added.
Germany has announced that there could be further Afghan deportations after the car ramming incident, as reported by AFP.
Who was the suspect?
Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said the suspect was known to authorities in connection with theft and drug-related crimes. He didn’t give any more details.
The state’s justice minister, Georg Eisenreich, said a prosecutors’ department that investigates extremism and terror was looking into the case.
“It is simply terrible,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder told reporters at the scene. “We feel with the victims, we are praying for the victims — we hope very much that they all make it.”
“It is suspected to be an attack — a lot points to that,” Söder added.
Also read: What we know about the deadly Christmas market attack in Germany
Last year, six people died and 200 were injured when an immigrant drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
Authorities identified the suspect, who was arrested immediately after he drove a rented car through the crowded market, as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.
They have said he doesn’t fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The man described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam, and on social media expressed support for the far-right.
With inputs from Reuters, AFP, AP
