2-year-old girl and mother die of wounds from Munich car-ramming attack
German prosecutor says Afghan national who wounded 37 uttered ‘Allahu Akbar’ to police after plowing into trade union demonstration
MUNICH — A two-year-old girl and her mother died Saturday from injuries suffered in a car-ramming attack two days earlier in the German city of Munich that left 37 others injured, police said.
“Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,” police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told AFP.
A 24-year-old Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday.
Police said the asylum seeker, identified by German media as Farhad N., may have had Islamist extremist motives for the attack.
After the incident, the suspect uttered the words “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) to police officers and also prayed, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said on Friday.
The carnage came shortly before Germans head to the polls for a February 23 election where immigration is a key issue following a spate of attacks blamed on migrants.
BREAKING:
First video of the man who plowed a car into a group of people in Munich, Germany today.
At least 20 people are hurt pic.twitter.com/D2cGhJJWtf
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 13, 2025
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a message on X that he was “deeply shocked and saddened by the death of the small child and the woman who succumbed to their injuries after the attack in Munich.”
“It is unimaginable what the relatives are going through. My deepest condolences go out to them. The country mourns with them.”
The Bavarian capital has seen heavy security in recent days because of the three-day Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of international foreign and security policy officials, which opened on Friday. US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were both in attendance.
The car-ramming attack occurred around 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the security conference venue.
The Times of Israel Staff contributed reporting.
