Some of 20 victims were seriously injured after a car crashed into a crowd of people on Stiglmaierplatz in the city centre before 11 am (1000 GMT) on Thursday.

This is according to a Munich fire brigade spokesman.

The driver was promptly detained by officers, Munich police said in a post on X.

“There is no further danger from him at the moment. We have no reason to believe that there is any danger to the public,” Munich police spokesman Thomas Schelshorn said.

He added that it remained initially unclear whether the crash was an accident or may have been deliberately driven into the crowd.

Some of the injured have life-threatening injuries, according to the fire brigade spokesman.

Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said he had been informed that children are among those injured.

“I am deeply shocked. My thoughts are with the injured,’’ Reiter said.

A demonstration by the verdi trade union was taking place at the scene of the incident, on Munich’s Stiglmaierplatz, at around 10:30 a.m. (0930 GMT), according to police reports.

It was initially unclear whether demonstrators were among the injured.

Several ambulances were also parked a few streets away from Stiglmaierplatz.

The police spokesman, Schelshorn, said that authorities were currently on the scene with strong forces.

The fire brigade said that authorities activated a broad emergency response to the incident, calling in civil defence volunteers in addition to police and emergency services to help respond to the incident.

Munich is currently preparing for tight security with the Munich Security Conference (MSC), a major gathering of foreign policy experts and global leaders, set to open on Friday.

The conference is hosted at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, located about 1.6 kilometres away from Stiglmaierplatz in the Munich city centre.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were among the many senior world leaders expected to attend the MSC.

(dpa/NAN)