At Least 28 Injured After Car Driven Into Crowd in Munich; Afghan Man Arrested

Members of the emergency services work at the scene where a driver a car drove into a crowd in the southern German city of Munich, dated Feb. 13. Michaela Stache/ AFP via Getty Images

At least 28 people were injured after a car was driven into a crowd in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 13 in what authorities suspect was an attack.

The car was driven by a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, who was arrested at the scene, according to police.

Bavarian police said the vehicle crashed into a demonstration by a service workers’ union in a square near downtown Munich at about 10:30 a.m. local time.

Police stated that they fired a shot at the car before arresting the suspect.

Among the 28 injured, two are seriously hurt, police said in a statement posted on social media platform X.

“Numerous emergency personnel are still on-site around the scene of the incident,” police said in the statement. “Providing care for the injured is currently the top priority. Please support the rescue workers by keeping emergency routes clear.”

Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said that children were among those injured.

Bavarian State Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect was already known to authorities and that his asylum application had been rejected, but deportation had not been possible.

Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder said the incident was “probably an attack.”

“One thing is clear: we always react prudently—but we are also determined,” he said in a statement posted to X. “This is not the first attack of this kind. Sympathy and coming to terms with the past are important. But something fundamental has to change in Germany.”

Bavarian Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich said a prosecutors’ department that specializes in investigating extremism and terror was looking into the case.

Attacks by immigrants and asylum seekers have made immigration one of the key issues in the German election set to be held on Feb. 23.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), called the attack “really terrible.”

“Anyone who commits crimes in Germany will not just be punished severely and have to go to prison, but must expect that he cannot continue his stay in Germany—and that also goes for countries that it is very difficult to send people back to.”

Alice Weidel, leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), wrote in a statement posted to X: “Millions of people have come to us who previously threw away their passports. And we don’t know who they are. Munich, Aschaffenburg, Magdeburg, Solingen, Mannheim and many other crime scenes show: We need a migration turnaround—and we need it immediately!”

Leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union Freidrich Merz sent his thoughts to the victims.

“The safety of the people in Germany will be our top priority,” he said in a social media post. “We will consistently enforce law and order. Everyone must feel safe in our country again. Something must change in Germany.”

Current polling places the Christian Democratic Union party in first place, AfD second, and the SPD third. The makeup of the government after the election will depend on coalition talks based on Germany’s proportional representation voting system.

Munich will host its annual international security conference on Feb. 14. World leaders, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are expected to attend the event, which has been held in the city since 1963.

Owen Evans, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.