7 killed and 16 injured as a suspected migrant-smuggling vehicle crashes in southern Germany

BERLIN (AP) — A vehicle trying to evade a police check in southern Germany left a highway at high speed on Friday and crashed, killing seven people and injuring 16, authorities said. The overcrowded vehicle appeared to be carrying migrants.

The accident happened near Muehldorf, east of Munich on the A94 highway, which leads to the Austrian border. The van left the road and overturned.

Police said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that initial investigations showed that it was “a suspected smuggler vehicle with more than 20 people on board.” They said prosecutors had opened a homicide investigation.

Bavaria’s top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, said that the dead included a young child. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

It wasn’t immediately clear where the people packed into the van came from.

“The inhuman behavior of the smuggler, who was injured in the accident and wanted to evade being stopped by the federal police just to save his own skin, makes one speechless,” Herrmann said.

Germany has seen large numbers of migrants arriving in recent months. The A94 is known as a smuggling route.

Herrmann, whose conservative party belongs to Germany’s main opposition bloc, told dpa that Friday’s incident shows “how important it is to further strengthen immediate border controls in order to stop smugglers already at the border.”

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