Two killed, dozens injured as van drives into crowd in Germany’s Munster
Police say driver shot himself after crash, but authorities say there’s no apparent Islamist motive; local media claims driver is a German who had psychological issues
Two people were killed and dozens injured Saturday when a vehicle plowed into busy cafe and restaurant terraces in the German city of Munster before the driver killed himself, police and local media said.
At least 20 people were injured, six of them seriously, according to police, while media reports said the driver had been behind the wheel of a delivery van.
Officials initially said three people had been killed besides the driver, who shot himself, but later corrected the number down to two.
Hours after the incident, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, public broadcaster ZDF and news agency DPA said the assailant was a German in his late 40s and believed to be psychologically disturbed “with no known links to “terrorism.”
And state interior minister Herbert Reul said German authorities had found no evidence of an Islamist motive behind the incident.
“The perpetrator who recklessly sped into a crowd of people after 3:00 p.m. is, according to the current stage of the investigation, a German citizen and not, as has been claimed everywhere, a refugee or something like that,” Reul, of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told reporters.
“There is no indication at the moment that there is any Islamist connection,” he said.
Police said a suspicious object was found in the van. They said they were still examining what kind of an object it is and whether it was dangerous. Officials told German news agency dpa that the object led to a large area around the scene being sealed off after the crash.
German police said they were checking witness reports that other perpetrators may have fled from the van. Police spokesman Andreas Bode said witnesses told them others left the van after it crashed. News agency dpa reported that witnesses spoke of two others in the van besides the driver.
Bode said it was “too soon” to call the incident a deliberate attack.
Munster Mayor Markus Lewe said the reason for the crash was still unclear. Lewe told reporters that “all of Muenster is mourning this horrible incident. Our sympathy is with the relatives of those who were killed. We wish the injured a quick recovery.”
Immediately after the crash the online edition of the Spiegel magazine reported that German authorities were “assuming” the incident was an attack, though there was no immediate official confirmation.
“There are deaths and injured. Please avoid the area, we are on scene,” the regional police service said on Twitter.
Police also urged people to refrain from spreading “speculation” about the incident.
Images broadcast by German television showed several police and firefighting vehicles clustered around a street in the center of the picturesque medieval city of 300,000 people.
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Armed police were deployed and officers urged residents to avoid the city center to allow investigators to get to work.
Lino Baldi, who owns an Italian restaurant in Munster near the scene of the crash, told Sky TG24 that the city center was packed due to a Saturday market and summer-like temperatures.
A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “our thoughts are with the victims and their families” who were killed and injured.
Spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer on Twitter called the crash Saturday “terrible news.”
Germany’s top security official said he’s “dismayed by the terrible incident in Munster” and that city and regional police were working hard to clear up what happened. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said federal authorities were in close contact with officials in North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Munster is located.
Germany has experienced a number of terror attacks in recent years, including through the deadly use of vehicles.
In December 19, 2016, Tunisian national Anis Amri, 24, hijacked a truck and slammed it into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48.
Amri was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later after travelling through several European countries. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for that attack.
IS also claimed several similar attacks in Europe, including a rampage along Barcelona’s Las Ramblas boulevard in August 2017 that killed 14 and left more than 100 injured.
The deadliest such incident in recent years was in the French resort city of Nice in 2016, where a man rammed a truck into a crowd on France’s national July 14 holiday, killing 86 people.
Germany remains a target for jihadist groups, in particular because of its involvement in the coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and its deployment in Afghanistan since 2001.
German troops in the anti-IS coalition do not participate in combat operations but support it through reconnaissance, refuelling and training.
Germany’s security services estimate there are around 10,000 Islamic radicals in Germany, some 1,600 of whom are suspected of being capable of using violence.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed in more than one million asylum seekers in the past two years — a decision that has driven the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which charges that the influx spells a heightened security risk.
The Times of Israel Community.