Police say driver killed himself but it is unclear if incident in Münster was terror attack




Four people are dead and 20 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd in the western German city of Münster.
A police spokeswoman said that the driver had shot himself inside the car after driving into the crowd who had been basking in the sunshine outside a restaurant in the town’s historic centre on Saturday afternoon.
Germany’s interior ministry confirmed that four people had died in the incident, including the driver.
Six of the 20 people struck by the car are severely injured, a police spokesperson said. Police said there were investigating reports that two people had fled from inside the car following the crash. The spokesperson confirmed that a suspicious object had been found inside the car, though would not confirm reports of explosives being found.
It was not clear whether the incident was an attack, police said, but a security source said that scenario could not be ruled out.
The online edition of Spiegel magazine said German authorities were “assuming” it was an act of terrorism, though there was no immediate official confirmation.

Police urged people to avoid speculation and asked people to “avoid the area near the Kiepenkerl pub”, where a large-scale police operation was under way.
Kiepenkerl is a popular bar in the city’s historic downtown area, named after a statue of a travelling salesman from the city, built in 1896. Münster, a town of around 310,000 citizens, is among the 10 biggest university towns in Germany.
Markus Lewe, Münster’s mayor, said: “The whole of Münster is in mourning after this terrible event. Our condolences are with the relatives of the dead. We wish the injured a quick recovery. At this point we don’t know the background to this incident, but I want to thank the forces at work today in Münster.”
The incident evoked memories of a December 2016 truck attack in Berlin that killed 12 people.
Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck on 19 December 2016, killed the driver and then drove it into a crowded Christmas market, killing 11 people and injuring 70 others.
Amri, 24, then embarked on a 1,000-mile journey from Germany to Italy in the days after the truck attack before being shot dead by Italian police in Milan.
On the first anniversary of the attack last December, Germany’s leaders admitted that the government had failed to provide adequate support to relatives of the victims and acknowledged security gaps in the run-up to the atrocity.
After being accused of failing to personally contact families of victims, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, met them for the first time just before Christmas. She joined relatives in inaugurating a memorial – a 14-metre (46ft) golden krack in the ground engraved with the victims’ names

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/07/several-dead-after-vehicle-drives-into-crowd-in-munster-germany

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