On Thursday morning, a 24-year-old Afghan refugee drove into a union demonstration in central Munich, killing a 2-year-old girl and her mother and injuring nearly 40 other people. The police say they are investigating whether the driver, who confessed to a deliberate attack, acted alone. The attack happened just 10 days before federal elections that have been focused on migration, and the crash could loom large in the campaign’s final days.
What happened during the attack?
At around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, officers in a police cruiser at the tail end of a union march in central Munich noticed a two-door Mini Cooper coming up from behind. The car sped up to pass the cruiser and plowed into the back of the marchers. Witnesses said they heard the Mini rev up as it drove into the crowd. The police fired a single shot as they went to arrest the driver.
Ambulances and a helicopter arrived at the scene. Police set up a temporary post in a nearby restaurant, where they asked witnesses to come forward, and set up an online portal for uploading any video or pictures of the attack. Officers also used dogs to search the car.
By evening the damaged car was lifted onto a flatbed tow truck and impounded.
Who were the victims?
On Saturday, a 2-year-old girl and her mother died at a hospital, the police said. Besides them, 37 people were injured in the attack, including several children.
The car plowed into a crowd of union members and supporters and their families. Verdi, one of the biggest unions in Germany, had called a one-day strike for some public sector workers, including those employed in day care, garbage collection and city administration.
The roughly 1,500 marchers were being accompanied by police officers as they walked down a public street.
What do we know about the suspect?
The man came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016, according to the authorities. During his application for asylum, he said that his father had been murdered in Afghanistan and that the killers were looking for him. The authorities did not believe his testimony at the time and did not give him official asylum status. In a standard bureaucratic turn, the city of Munich gave the man a temporary residence permit in 2021, which allowed him access to education opportunities and to work. The man, whom the authorities have named as Farhad N., in keeping with strict privacy guidelines, attended school and eventually started working in retail security for two private firms.
Unlike other suspects in similar seemingly random attacks, Mr. N. appeared to be largely integrated into German society and was not known to the authorities for violence or crimes. He held a job and rented an apartment in Munich. He was a bodybuilder and had a relatively large following on Instagram and TikTok, where he presented himself as a fitness model, Munich’s public attorney’s office said on Friday.
The office was investigating him on the suspicion of 36 counts of both attempted homicide and of causing dangerous bodily harm. After the driver confessed to the attack, the authorities said they believed he had religious motives and an “Islamist orientation.”
Investigators said they found a message on his cellphone in which he had said goodbye to a loved one, saying “I might not be around tomorrow.”
However, investigators, still combing through his digital devices, said they had not found a connection with the Islamic State or other terrorist organizations.
Why is this attack rattling Germany?
This is at least the fifth major random attack by a Middle Eastern or Afghan migrant in the last nine months. In late May, an Afghan migrant killed a police officer and wounded several participants in a far-right demonstration in Mannheim. In August, a Syrian refugee killed three and injured eight in a stabbing spree in Solingen. In December, a man from Saudi Arabia used an S.U.V. to kill six people and injure 300 by driving into a Christmas market in Magdeburg. Last month, an Afghan refugee with an apparent mental illness used a kitchen knife to kill a toddler and a man who had rushed in to help in a city park in a small town in Bavaria.
These attacks have helped increase the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, which has made limiting migration one of its key planks. Last month, Friedrich Merz, who leads the conservative Christian Democrats and is expected to be Germany’s next chancellor, broke a taboo by voting in Parliament with the AfD on migration measures. While he was criticized by hundred thousands of protesters who took to the streets soon after, his vote showed how much the issue of limiting immigration has become mainstream, even though the number of those seeking asylum has been dropping.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Thursday that the attacker should be punished and sent back to Afghanistan.
