Three dead as vehicle ploughs into crowd in German city

Berlin, Germany - Three persons were killed and at least 20 injured on Saturday when a vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in the German city of Muenster before the driver killed himself.

A police spokeswoman in the western city said that the driver of the vehicle ‘shot himself’ after driving into a crowd of people and leaving about 20 bystanders with injuries. “There are deaths and injured. Please avoid the area, we are on scene,” the regional police said on Twitter.

Police also urged people to refrain from spreading ‘speculation’ about the incident.

According to the online edition of the Spiegel magazine, German authorities were ‘assuming’ the incident was an attack, though there was no immediate official confirmation of a motive.

Images broadcast by German television showed several police and firefighting vehicles clus- tered around a street in the centre of the picturesque medieval city of 300,000 people.

Armed police officials were deployed and officers urged residents to avoid the city centre to allow investigators to get to work.