Some 28 people were injured when a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a crowd of people in Munich in what the state premier said was probably an attack on Thursday, as the German city prepared to host a top-level security conference.

Police in the southern city said a car approached police vehicles stopped by a demonstration held by the Verdi union before speeding up and hitting people. One shot was fired at the suspect and it was unclear if he was wounded, police added.

Officers detained the 24-year-old driver. His motive was unclear.

The suspected attack throws security back into the spotlight before a federal election next week following several other violent attacks.

It also came hours before leading international figures, including US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were in the city for the high-profile Munich Security Conference, which starts on Friday.

“It was probably an attack,” Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder told reporters.

Bavaria’s interior minister said he did not suspect there was a connection to the conference. Police said they had detained the driver and did not consider him to pose any further threat.

A passerby said he witnessed the incident from a window of a neighbouring office building. The car, a Mini Cooper, had threaded its way between the police vehicles and then accelerated, he said.

Another witness said she had seen part of the incident from a building. The car had accelerated and hit several people in the crowd, she said.

People in the crowd were taking part in a strike held by the Verdi public sector workers’ union whose leader, Frank Werneke, expressed shock but said he had no further details.

Police set up a gathering point for witnesses in the Loewenbraeukeller, one of Munich’s oldest beer halls.

The incident occurred around 1.5 kilometres from the security conference venue.