Munich car attack believed to have had Islamist motive, says prosecutor

(From left) The lord mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the Bavarian prime minister, Markus Söder, lay flowers at the scene of the attack. Photograph: Action Press/Rex/Shutterstock

German police and prosecutors have said the Afghan suspect in a car ramming in central Munich that injured at least 36 people is believed to have had an “Islamist” motive and will answer to charges of attempted murder.

One day after the attack on a trade union rally during the final stage of the German election campaign, the chief prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told reporters that online “communications” by the suspect, a 24-year-old asylum seeker, pointed to Islamic extremism.