3 dead as van drives into German cafe
Driver, who had no links to terror kills himself; 20 injured, six of them seriously, in the crash
Aman smashed a vehicle into busy cafe and restaurant terraces in Germany yesterday killing at least three people before shooting himself dead in front of horrified diners.
Images of the scene showed broken and upturned tables and chairs strewn across the pavement outside eateries in the centre of the picturesque medieval city of Muenster as media reports said the driver was a German national in his late 40s with a history of mental health problems and no known links to “terrorism”.
At least 20 people were injured, six of them seriously. Witnesses reported seeing two other men fleeing the van, but police said they had investigated and were no longer looking for other suspects. Andreas Bode, a police spokesman at the scene, said: “The suspect killed himself in the vehicle. It’s far too early to speak of a [terrorist] attack right now. The investigation is ongoing. “There was possibly a suspicious object in the vehicle, but the investigation is ongoing into what kind of object it is.”
Several people were killed and injured yesterday when a vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in the German city of Muenster before the driver killed himself, police and local media said.
A police spokeswoman in the western city told AFP that the driver of the vehicle “shot himself” after driving into a crowd of people and leaving about 30 bystanders with injuries.
“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.
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 clustered around a street in the centre of the picturesque medieval city of 300,000 people.
Armed police were deployed and officers urged residents to avoid the city centre to allow investigators to get to work.
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. Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) claimed responsibility for that attack.
Daesh 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.
According to the Spiegel magazine, German authorities were ‘assuming’ the incident was an attack, though there was no immediate official confirmation of a motive for the incident.