Seven people were killed and several others injured in a minibus accident which took place on the night of Thursday October 12 to Friday October 13 in Bavaria, local police announced. The vehicle is suspected of having transported migrants, according to the same source.
The minibus, a Mercedes Vito carrying more than 20 people and registered in Austria, wanted to escape a check on the highway about fifty kilometers from the border between Austria and Germany, while it was heading towards Munich, the Bavarian capital, police added.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the driver accelerated to flee and the vehicle left the road further, at an intersection between the Bavarian municipalities of Ampfing and Waldkraiburg. Seven people died and the other occupants, some seriously injured, were transported to nearby hospitals. An investigation was entrusted to the judicial police.
This accident comes at a time when, since the beginning of October, Berlin has strengthened controls at Germany’s borders on its eastern flank.
The arrival of illegal migrants, mostly of Syrian and Afghan origin, is causing a lively debate in the country whose reception capacity is running out. “The number of people currently coming to us is too high,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted again this week, presenting measures to accelerate the expulsions of people rejected from asylum. This situation is being exploited by the far right, which obtained unprecedented results in two regional elections last Sunday.