Mother and child die from injuries after car ramming attack in Munich

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Minister for Justice and Transport Volker Wissing and Munich mayor Dieter Reiter lay flowers as they visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of a suspected ramming attack where a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a crowd, as the Munich Security Conference (MSC) takes place in Munich, Germany February 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

MUNICH (Reuters) - A 37-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter died on Saturday from injuries they sustained when an Afghan national drove a car into a crowd in Munich on Thursday, German police said on Saturday, the first fatalities from the incident.

Prosecutors had said on Friday that at least 39 people were injured, some of them critically, when the car ploughed into trade union activists demonstrating for higher pay.

Authorities said they were treating the incident as a religiously motivated attack.

The attack has brought security issues back into focus in campaigning for Germany's federal election on February 23.

The attack also came hours before theh arrival of international leaders in the southern German city for the annual Munich Security Conference.

(Reporting by Joern Poltz and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Friederike Heine and Gareth Jones)