At least 28 wounded after the driver plows in demonstration in Germany

Berlin (AP) – A driver drove a car into a lab demonstration in Central Munich on Thursday and wounded at least 28 people including children, authorities said. Officials said it is believed to be an attack.

The suspect, an Afghan asylum seeker, was arrested. The incident follows a series of attacks involving immigrants in recent months that has pushed migration at the forefront of the campaign for Germany’s 23 February election.

Participants in a demonstration from Service Workers’ Union Ver.di went along a street around 2 p.m. 10.30, when the car overtook a policy of the collection after the collection, accelerated and plowed on the back of the group, police say.

Officers arrested the suspect after firing a shot at the car, said Deputy Police Chief Christian Huber. He added that at least 28 people were believed to be injured, some of them seriously. A damaged mini was seen on stage along with dirt including shoes.

The suspect was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, Huber said. Bavaria’s State Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann, said the man was known by the authorities in connection with theft and drug certificates, but did not provide further details. He said officials believe the protest was likely to be targeted at random.

The State Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich said that a prosecutor who is investigating extremism and terror was looking at the case.

“We feel with the victims we pray for the victims – we very much hope they all do,” Bavarian Governor Markus Söder told journalists on stage.

“It is suspected of being an attack – much points to it,” Söder added.

Mayor Dieter Reiter said children were among the wounded.

The Munich incident comes three weeks after a 2-year-old boy and a man were killed in a Knife attack In Aschaffenburg, also in Bavaria. An Afghan whose asylum application was rejected was the suspect in this attack that propelled migration to the center of the German election campaign.

The Aschaffenburg -Attack followed knife attack In Mannheim and Soling last year Where the suspects were immigrants from Afghanistan and Syria-in the latter case, respectively, a rejected asylum seeker who should have left the country.

In the December Market Ramming in December in Magdeburg, The suspect was a Saudi doctor that had previously come to the attention of various regional authorities.

Germany’s most important opposition conservative block where Söder is a prominent figure has required a harder approach For irregular migration, many more people are calling back at the border and for an increase in deportations. Curbing migration is also a core problem for right-right Alternative to GermanyWhat polls put in second place behind the Conservatives.

“This is more evidence that we cannot go from attack to attack and show dismay, thank the police for their deployment,” Söder said. “This is not the first such action … We are determined that something should change in Germany and quickly.”

Alternative to Germany’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, posted on the social network X: “Should this continue forever? Migration -Vover now! “

Center-Left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government said it has already done a lot for Reduce irregular migrationAnd that the opposition’s plans are incompatible with German and EU legislation.

Scholz described the latest incident as “an awful attack.”

“Anyone who commits crimes in Germany will not only be severely punished and must go to jail, but must expect him to not continue his stay in Germany – and it also applies to countries that it is very difficult to send people Back to, ”he said.

Chancellor noted that his government deported convicted criminals to Afghanistan at A flight in August and is working to do it again – “and not just once, but constantly.”

Herrmann said Munich suspected asylum application had apparently been rejected, but it would not have been possible to deport him.

The Bavarian capital will see strong security in the coming days because the three-day Munich Security Conference, an annual collection of international foreign and security policy officials, will open Friday.

Herrmann said the authorities do not believe that the car’s Ramming was connected to the conference, but they still have to determine the subject.

Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.