Saturday 7 April 2018 – Van attack kills several in Muenster, Germany

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Two people, according to State Interior Minister Herbert Reuel, have been killed and up to 30 people have been injured in Muenster in Germany when a grey VW van being driven at speed ploughed into a crowd outside a restaurant near the Kiepenkeri statue in the old town at 3.27pm local time (2.27pm BST, 1.27pm GMT). Although it has not yet been confirmed that this is a terror attack, this seems likely as the driver of the vehicle is reported to have killed himself. It is also true that vehicles are not normally permitted in the area of the crash, which further suggests this was deliberate – if not terror-related. Police are conducting a large-scale operation in the old town and have asked people to “avoid the area near the Kiepenkeri pub” and are thought to be not looking for any other suspects. The identity of the driver hasn’t yet been announced, but it is believed he is a German citizen and police are saying there is no evidence at this point that this was an Islamist-inspired attack. Local media are reporting that the man had mental health problems and police are searching an apartment in the city.

Reports suggest a suspicious object was found in the van and this partly explains the large area now sealed off by police. The German magazine Spiegel, in its online edition are quoting German authorities as “assuming” it is terror-related, with a security source telling Reuters that “The scenario is such that an attack cannot be ruled out.” A spokesman for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “our thoughts are with the victims and their families,” and called the crash “terrible news.” Meanwhile, Andrea Nahles, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, who are junior partner in the country’s ruling coalition led by Chancellor Merkel, said: “I am shocked by the news from Muenster. My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. I hope that our authorities can quickly clear the background to this incident and wish the local forces much strength for their work.”

If this is a terror attack it will be the latest of a series of vehicle attacks across Europe, including in the German capital Berlin in December 2016 when 12 people were killed at a Christmas market. In that attack Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck, killing the driver, and drove it into the crowded market killing another 11 people before fleeing the scene and the country. Italian police caught up with him in Milan and shot him dead.