A car that drove into a trade union demonstration in Munich on Thursday morning is being treated as a “suspected attack,” according to Bavarian state Premier Markus Söder.
The suspected driver has been identified as a 24-year-old Afghan citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, according to Munich police.
At least 28 people were injured as the car sped just before 11 am (1000 GMT) into the rear of the demonstration, which had been organized by the verdi trade union, police said. Some of those hit by the car suffered severe, life-threatening injuries.
Police officers at the scene fired one shot at the driver, a Munich police official said at a midday press conference with Söder.
The driver was then promptly detained by police.
“There is no further danger from him at the moment,” Munich police spokesman Thomas Schelshorn said on Thursday morning. “We have no reason to believe that there is any danger to the public.”
The 24-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan had previously attracted attention from German police for shoplifting and violations of the Narcotics Act, according to Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.
According to police, the man drove his car past a police vehicle that was guarding the rear of the trade union march in central Munich, between Stiglmaierplatz and the Central Train Station.
Hermann credited police officers who were accompanying the march with reacting quickly to prevent further possible injuries.
Based on reports from police officers accompanying the rally, as well as other witnesses, “we must assume that it was not an accident, but that he acted deliberately,” Hermann said.
Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said he had been informed that children are among those injured.
“I am deeply shocked,” Reiter said. “My thoughts are with the injured.”
Söder, the conservative leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), called the suspected attack “a punch in the face” for Germany and said there must be consequences once authorities determine exactly what happened, pointing to a string of recent attacks in the country.
The Bavarian branch of Germany’s Trade Union Confederation (DGB), meanwhile, expressed heartbreak and confusion about the attack on the verdi march, which was part of a nationwide strike by public-sector works amid collective bargaining talks.
“We are stunned that a vehicle was deliberately driven into a peaceful verdi demonstration and that strikers – including children – were injured, some of them critically,” said the DGD’s state chairman for Bavaria, Bernhard Stiedl.
Munich is currently preparing for tight security with the Munich Security Conference (MSC), a major gathering of foreign policy experts and global leaders, set to open on Friday.
Hermann, the Bavarian interior minister, said that authorities currently do not believe that there is any connection between the suspected attack and the upcoming conference.
The conference is hosted at the Bayerischer Hof hotel, located in Munich’s city centre about 1.6 kilometres away from Stiglmaierplatz, a major square and traffic junction.
US Vice President JD Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are among the many senior world leaders expected to attend the MSC.
In an initial statement, conference management reacted “with great shock” to the incident but did not comment on any possible consequences for the conference other than saying they are in contact with the police.
