The driver who injured at least 36 people by ‘deliberately’ ramming a car into a demonstration in Munich yesterday was an Islamist and yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ after the horrifying attack, police said today as details of the attacker emerged.
Farhad N., a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, is due to appear before a judge this afternoon, a day after he drove a Mini Cooper into a crowd of around 1,000 striking unionists.
Gabriele Tilmann, the senior public prosecutor, said that Farhad N. had confessed during an interrogation to deliberately driving into the demonstration. Police said that Farhad had an ‘Islamist orientation’ but was not affiliated with any Islamist groups.
The prosecutor said that he had prayed after driving his car into the crowd. A two-year-old child was left fighting for their life when the car hit a mother pushing a pram, local media reports.
‘The suspect came to Germany in 2016 as an unaccompanied minor and was here legally,’ Tilmann said this morning. He was said to have lived in a rented apartment in Munich while working as a store detective. Farhad was born in Kabul in 2001, Bild reports.
Police are still working to uncover a motive for the attack on the Verdi labour union demonstration. Initial findings have not uncovered any evidence the suspect collaborated with anybody else.
‘We will continue to investigate the perpetrator’s personality,’ Tilmann said, noting that Farhad would be questioned further following the initial two-hour interrogation. Bavarian police will also be sifting through the Farhad’s phone communications.
Early analysis indicates he had pre-planned the attack; police uncovered in one chat with a relative that he had said: ‘Tomorrow I won’t be here anymore.’
Farhad N. was born in Kabul and moved to Germany seeking asylum in 2016
The aftermath of the attack in Munich on February 13
Objects lying on the street at the scene, including a baby carriage
According to German newspaper Spiegel, Farhad is said to have uploaded Islamist posts online before the crime.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Farhad N.’s asylum application had been rejected in 2016, when he arrived in Germany.
However, he reportedly received a so-called toleration permit from the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which meant that his deportation was suspended until 2023, when he got a residence and work permit until April 2025.
It is understood that Farhad N. worked for a security service and participated in bodybuilding competitions in his free time. He regularly shared pictures of his fitness journey with his more than 100,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.
Farhad N. injured at least 36, including a two-year-old child, when he ploughed his Mini Cooper through a demonstration in Munich yesterday afternoon.
Footage from the scene captured the moment the driver was arrested, as cops swarmed the vehicle and pinned him to the ground.
Following the tragic incident, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: ‘This perpetrator cannot hope for any leniency. He must be punished and he must leave the country.’
He added: ‘If this was an attack, we must take consistent action against possible perpetrators using all legal means at our disposal.’
It is understood that Farhad N. worked for a security service and participated in bodybuilding competitions in his free time. He regularly shared pictures of his fitness journey with his more than 100,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok
Police and emergency services stand near a damaged car that drove into demonstrators marching in the city center on February 13
The attack comes at a sensitive time ahead of the upcoming German election on February 23.
Recent attacks on German soil have made security and immigration key issues going into the contest.
Moderates have been pressed to take a harder line on immigration amid a relative resurgence of the far-right.
Only a day before, Chancellor Scholz said that Germany would extend its strict border controls brought in to tackle migration and Islamist terrorism by a further six months past their planned expiry next month.
He cited their success, claiming border checks had resulted in ‘47,000 people being turned back at the border’ to date.
He also cited figures showing asylum applications had fallen by a third last year from 2023 and that 1,900 people smugglers had been arrested.
The government announced a sweeping crackdown on traffic into the country in September to deal with what Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the ‘continuing burden’ of migration and ‘Islamist terrorism’.
In December, the country was shaken by an attack in Bavaria, when an Afghan asylum seeker allegedly stabbed a two-year-old boy and a passerby to death in a German park.
German police officers stand at the site where a car crashed into a Ver.di demonstration the day before, Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a press statement on February 13, 2025 at the Chancellery in Berlin, following the car ramming attack in Munich
Enamullah O., 28, was arrested near the scene, suspected of attacking a group of children in a park in Aschaffenburg. Two people were killed and three injured, police said.
Regional interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect had already come to the attention of authorities for violent behaviour on three separate occasions and was referred for psychiatric treatment.
Investigations were ongoing into the motive behind the attack, although initial information pointed ‘very strongly in the direction of his obvious mental illness’.
The suspect had entered Germany in 2022 and unsuccessfully sought asylum. He was meant to have left late last year after offering to leave the country voluntarily, Herrmann said.
A search of the suspect’s accommodation at an asylum centre had not produced ‘any evidence of a radical Islamist attitude’, with investigators instead finding psychiatric medication.
A fellow Afghan refugee who shared a hallway with him told Bild: ‘I couldn’t sleep because of him.’
‘He was always making noise, drinking and listening to loud music.’
Ahmad M., a 28-year-old engineer, said he spoke to Enamullah O. but never understood full sentences from him.
A car is lifted onto a tow truck at the scene where a driver drove a car into a labor union demonstration in Munich, Germany, Thursday Feb. 13, 2025
Security barriers near the entrance of the hotel ‘Bayerischer Hof’, the venue of the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC), in Munich, Germany, 14 February 2025
‘As an Afghan, I am so sorry about this. My condolences go out to the families affected. But how could the police fail so badly? They all knew that he was not right in the head.’
Also in December, a Saudi doctor drove a car through a German Christmas market, injuring hundreds and killing at least six.
Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old who arrived in the country in 2006 and held permanent residency, rammed his SUV into a packed market in the town of Magdeburg on December 20.
Social media accounts falsely alleged al-Abdulmohsen was an Islamist terrorist shortly after the attack. The German interior minister later identified the suspect as being Islamophobic himself.
Germany brought in its harsh border policy in September in the aftermath of an attack in Solingen on August 23, in which three people were killed and eight were injured.
Following the attack, police announced they had arrested a 26-year-old Syrian refugee as a suspect.
The attacker was allegedly heard saying ‘I’m going to stab everyone’ before launching the attack.