Munich latest: Driver in suspected car -frame attack in Munich was Afghan asylum seeker, officials say

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Analysis

A well -known fear of Germany when a national election is approaching

Jessica Parker
Berlin correspondent

Across Germany, people will have felt a familiar sense of fear and horror by hearing these original reports.

In 2016, a truck was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin by a Tunisian man who was a failed asylum seeker and had been a well -known jihadist threat – leading to 13 deaths.

Last December, a car plowed through crowds, again at a Christmas market, in the city of Magdeburg. Six people died and about 300 were injured. The suspect was a 50-year-old Saudi man who had been an obvious critic of Islam.

Magdeburg was the deadliest in a series of attacks in the last year in Germany involving suspects who have been asylum seekers.

It has increased an already tense migration debate in Germany in front of a national election next week. While many details are still unknown, police say the man they have detained in Munich is a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker known to them for theft and drug crimes.

Bavaria’s state premier, Markus Soder, has said what has happened today is probably an attack.