Car drives into crowd of people in Munich, several injured

A car drove into a crowd in Munich on Thursday injuring several people, police said, as the southern German city prepares for a top-level security conference due to be attended by US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Bild newspaper reported that 15 people were injured.

The Munich Security Conference is to start on Friday and senior officials, including Vance and Zelenskiy, were arriving later on Thursday.

A large-scale police operation was underway near the central train station.

Police said on X they were able to detain the driver and did not consider him to pose any further threat.

"One person is lying on the street and a young man has been taken away by the police. People are sitting on the ground, crying and trembling," a reporter for the local BR broadcaster wrote in a post on X.

The incident appeared to have affected people participating in a demonstration linked to a strike organised by the Verdi union, according to the broadcaster.

The union said it did not have any information on the incident.

The incident occurred around 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) from the security conference venue.

Security has been in sharp focus in Germany ahead of a federal election next week and following a string of violent attacks.