A driver plows into a demonstration in Munich, injuring 30 people

BERLIN (AP) — A driver drove a car into a labor union demonstration in central Munich on Thursday, injuring 30 people including children, authorities said. Officials said it was believed to be an attack.

The suspect, an Afghan asylum-seeker, was arrested. The incident follows a series of attacks involving immigrants in recent months that have pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germany’s Feb. 23 election.

Participants in a demonstration by the service workers’ union ver.di were walking along a street at about 10:30 a.m. when the suspect’s Mini Cooper overtook a police vehicle following the gathering, accelerated and plowed into the back of the group, police said.

Officers arrested the suspect after firing a shot at the car, deputy police chief Christian Huber said. Some of the victims sustained serious injuries. The car, with a battered front and a shattered windshield, was lifted onto a tow truck late Thursday afternoon after investigators inspected it among debris including shoes.

The suspect was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker, police said. Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said said officials believe the protest was likely targeted at random.

The state’s justice minister, Georg Eisenreich, said a prosecutors’ department that investigates extremism and terror was looking into the case.

Police said the man, who they added lived in Munich and had a valid residence permit, was known to authorities from investigations in which he had been a witness because of a former job as a store detective.

“We feel with the victims, we are praying for the victims — we hope very much that they all make it,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder told reporters at the scene.

“It is suspected to be an attack — a lot points to that,” Söder added.

Mayor Dieter Reiter said that children were among those injured.