Seven people, including a child, were killed and several others injured yesterday after a minibus believed to be packed with migrants crashed while trying to evade a German road check.
Police said that a Mercedes Vito minibus with an Austrian license plate and 23 people inside tried to avoid the check about 50km from the border with Austria as it drove toward Munich.
The driver lost control of the vehicle, which flipped over several times before landing on its side, police said.
Photo: AFP
Authorities said they believe a “people smuggler” was at the wheel and have opened a criminal investigation into the crash in the Bavaria region on suspicion of homicide.
“A six-year-old child was among the dead,” police spokesman Stefan Sonntag told reporters, but could not comment on the child’s sex or nationality.
“The driver and suspected people smuggler survived and is among those injured,” Sonntag said.
The preliminary indications were that the passengers in the vehicle were Syrian and Turkish nationals, with the driver described as “stateless,” he said.
Some of the 16 people injured were in a serious condition and being treated in local hospitals, with other children believed to be among the passengers.
German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, who has launched a drive against illegal immigration, said that she was “shocked” by the deadly crash “involving suspected people smuggling.”
“This terrible event shows the cruel and inhumane way smugglers put people’s lives at risk,” Faeser said in a statement. “My deepest sympathy goes out to the victims. My thoughts go out especially to the children who were penned in the vehicle.”
The vehicle sped up to avoid a road check by federal forces, who had observed it was packed with people, police said.
The minivan then took a motorway exit between the towns of Ampfing and Waldkraiburg, and crashed at about 3:15am, they said.
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