A 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter died two days after a car rammed into a crowd in Munich, Germany.
At least 39 people were injured in the Thursday attack that saw an asylum seeker from Afghanistan crash a Mini Cooper into a crowd on Thursday.
The woman brought her daughter with her in a pram while taking part in the demonstration organised by Verdi, one of Germany’s largest unions.
She worked at city hall, Mayor Dieter Reiter told Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Bavarian public broadcaster.
‘She and her daughter were murdered when she took to the streets to fight for her union rights. The pain is beyond words,’ he told BR.
Verdi chairman Frank Werneke added that city officials are ‘deeply shocked and stunned’ by the death of their colleague, who has not been named.
‘The grief over the suffering of the victims of the Munich attack is almost immeasurable,’ he added.
Police believe that the man behind the wheel of the vehicle, named locally as ‘Farhad N’, ploughed into the protest deliberately at 10.30am.
About 1,500 people were at the rally calling for a one-day strike for city workers when the 1.3-ton car tore through the crowd at around 50 km/h.
The crash site on Seidlstrasse Street was only metres from the central train station and a mile from the venue of the Munich Security Conference.
Police said officers were able to detain the driver and did not consider him to pose any further threat. He was later arrested.
The man came to Germany in 2016 and, after failing his first asylum request, was granted official status in 2021.
He was working as an in-store detective for two private security firms, according to Bavaria’s state interior minister Joachim Herrmann.
The BBC found his social media profiles before they were removed – which is common once a suspect is identified officially.
Photos on his social media appear to show him posing with a white Mini Cooper.
An employee of a shop near Stiglmaierplatz said that the injured were taken away in ambulances.
‘You could hear lots of helicopters and ambulances around,’ a local coin dealer on Stiglmaierplatz told Metro.
The little girl was taken to Harlaching Hospital eight kilometres away from the scene, the tabloid Bild reported.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid tribute to the mum and daughter on X.
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‘I am deeply shocked and saddened by the death of the small child and the woman who succumbed to their injuries after the attack in Munich,’ he said.
‘It is unimaginable what the relatives are going through. My deepest condolences go out to them. The country mourns with them.’
The German Trade Union Confederation added today: ‘Our thoughts are with all those affected and their families.
‘Words alone are not enough – now we need concrete help, now our solidarity is needed!’
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