MUNICH: No less than 28 individuals had been damage when a automotive pushed by an Afghan asylum seeker ploughed right into a crowd in Munich on Thursday in what the state premier mentioned was in all probability an assault, placing safety again in focus earlier than subsequent week’s federal election.
The suspected assault got here hours earlier than worldwide leaders together with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had been attributable to arrive within the southern German metropolis for the Munich Safety Convention.
“We presently consider that we’ve got at the very least 28 individuals injured, a few of them critically,” mentioned a police spokesperson.
Police mentioned a white automotive had approached police autos that had been accompanying an illustration of hanging staff, earlier than rushing up and slamming into individuals.
One shot was fired on the suspect and it was unclear if he was wounded, police added. Officers detained the 24-year-old driver. They mentioned his motive was unclear.
“It was in all probability an assault,” Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder instructed reporters.
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Bavarian inside minister Joachim Herrmann mentioned the suspect had been identified to police for drug and shoplifting offences. His asylum utility had been rejected, mentioned Herrmann, however he had not been compelled to depart attributable to safety issues in Afghanistan.
Immigration and safety points have dominated campaigning forward of the February 23 election, particularly after different violent incidents in current weeks, with polls displaying the centre-right conservatives main adopted by the far proper.
In December, six individuals had been killed in an assault on a Christmas market in Magdeburg and final month a toddler and grownup had been killed in a knife assault within the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg. Immigrants have been arrested over each assaults.
Conservative Friedrich Merz, frontrunner to be Germany’s subsequent chancellor, mentioned security can be his high precedence.
“We’ll implement legislation and order. Everybody should really feel protected in our nation once more. One thing has to vary in Germany,” Merz posted on X.
Merz has accused Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz of being mushy on immigration and final month, he even broke a taboo by successful a parliamentary vote on asylum with the help of the far-right Various for Germany (AfD).
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The AfD, in second place in polls, additionally seized on the incident, with co-leader Alice Weidel specializing in the driving force being an Afghan asylum seeker.
“Ought to this go on eternally? Migration turnaround now!” she posted on social media platform X.
Scholz mentioned the perpetrator couldn’t hope for leniency. “He have to be punished and he should go away the nation,” mentioned Scholz.
About 4 hours after the incident, the road the place it passed off was strewn with gadgets of clothes and baggage, a damaged pram, a shoe and a pair of glasses.