At least when a car drove into the Munich crowd on Thursday as the city of Germany in the south prepares for a top-level security meeting for US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky to attend, He said 28 people were injured.
Police said on social platform X that drivers were “secured” on the scene and no longer pose a risk.
The suspect is believed to be a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, police said.
“It’s suspected to be an attack, and it points to it,” Bavarian governor Marcus Söder told reporters on the scene.
The suspect must be punished to the fullest extent of the law and expelled from Germany, Prime Minister Olaf Scholz said Thursday.
“What happened is terrible,” Scholz told reporters. “From my point of view, it is very clear, this attacker cannot rely on mercy, he must be punished, he must leave the country.”
Passersby said he witnessed the incident through a window in a nearby office building. The Mini Cooper car was heading that path between police vehicles, but then accelerated, he said.
Another witness said she saw part of the incident from the building. The car accelerated and struck several people in the crowd, she said.
Regional public broadcaster Bayerisherland Funk (BR) reported that the injured people were apparently taking part in the strike.
“One person lies on the street, a young man has been taken away by the police. People are sitting on the ground crying and shaking,” a BR reporter wrote in X’s post.
A large-scale police operation was underway near Nanbu City’s central station.
The Munich security meeting will begin on Friday, with Vance and Zelensky arriving later Thursday.
The incident occurred about 1.5 km (1 mile) from the venue of the security meeting.
Security is focusing in Germany following a series of violent attacks ahead of next week’s federal election.
The incident follows a series of migrants involving migrants in recent months that pushed migration on the campaign trail ahead of Germany’s February 23 election. Recently, a two-year-old boy and another person were killed in a knife attack in Asschaffenberg, Bavaria.