At least 20 hurt after car crashes into crowd in Munich

At least 20 people were hurt after a car crashed into a crowd in the German city of Munich on Thursday, emergency services said, a day before the city hosts a high-profile security conference.

The incident also came 10 days before Germans head to the polls in a key election on February 23.

"At the moment there are 20 injured, several of them seriously and some of them in a life-threatening condition," fire service spokesman Bernhard Peschke told AFP.

Local media reported that the car, a Mini Cooper, drove into a group of striking workers from the Verdi union and that ambulances had rushed to the scene.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw one person wearing a high-visibility jacket on a stretcher being loaded into an ambulance.

The Munich police department said on X that "the driver of the vehicle has been detained and does not present a danger".

The ground at the scene close to the city's historic centre was littered with items including glasses, shoes, thermal blankets and a pushchair.

Munich police spokesman Thomas Schelshorn told reporters at the scene that "the circumstances around the incident and how it happened are still being investigated".

An eyewitness who was among the striking workers told the local BR42 website that he "saw a person lying under the car" after it drove into the crowd.

He said the police then came and shot at the car window.

Other eyewitnesses told the site that a man had been shot at and taken away by police.

The incident comes a day before the city is due to host the high-profile Munich Security Conference.

US Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are among those expected to attend the two-day security meet.

Germany holds parliamentary elections on February 23.