this is d w news live from burlington breaking news this hour a driver plows into crowds in a german city killing several people police in the northwestern city of munster say that a band drove into a crowd enjoying the spring weather at least four people are dead including the driver who killed himself after the incident and many more are wounded.

i'm sara kelly thank you for joining us and we begin with breaking news because at least four people have been killed and many more injured after a van plowed into a crowd in munster in northwestern germany police saying that around twenty people are injured with several of them in a critical condition the driver is among the dead having killed himself after the crash the incident took place outside of a busy restaurant popular with tourists in the city's historic downtown. and the police in the city have been tweeting about the incident saying that they are on site with all resources they posted the following update a short while ago writing please avoid the downtown area we will keep you informed here please do not spread rumors and speculation have consideration for the victims rescue workers are currently attending to the injured meantime this photo has been circulating widely on twitter following the crash it shows the site in munster that

has been reported to be the scene of the incident a spokesperson for chancellor angela merkel tweeted the following terrible news for months or the police will keep you updated our thoughts are with the victims and with their families and an employee of the restaurant where the incident took place described the scene shortly after the collision. i heard a loud bang screaming and then the police arrived and everyone was sent out side i didn't see much just lots of people running away screaming. i'm sorry for those who were caught up in this it's a shock to all of us employees her visitors i know that i'm angry it's cowardly to do something like this. so the search for answers begins and a police spokesperson also shared some details of their ongoing investigation have a listen. well we get from it's far too early to speak of an attack right now the

investigation is ongoing. activity of the area around the accident site has been evacuated and there was possibly a suspicious item in the vehicle investigators are looking into what kind of all object boxes. the driver killed himself his motive and identity around noon or. so as we heard there from that official the investigation is ongoing and here to make sense of it for us we have here in the studio his very own gary hart and also hans bronson joining us and i'd like to begin with you we just heard them saying that the investigation is ongoing here but what do we know at this hour. well the bare facts of it are that not a large truck but a delivery van something like that to drive into a crowd of people said were injured about six of them are in a life threatening situation and there is some credible information from various sources which has not been confirmed by the police however that the perpetrator

seems to have been a man of german origin who is psychologically disturbed that's the bare facts of it there is going. an investigation going on as we just heard the police spokesperson saying they fall and some sort of suspicious object in the truck with which this attack was perpetrated and they haven't quite established whether it is dangerous or not they have cordoned off this area in a very wide perimeter and evacuated it sent people out of that area presumably in order to avoid any further injury should the object be dangerous there are also reports that the home of the person who did this who is reputed to have done this is also being searched possibly for explosives or other forms of. dangerous goods so it's still very early to say conclusively what exactly has happened but obviously the police investigation is very intense of them ok so what we do know

concretely at this hour is that four people are dead and you know so many open questions here gary hart and with that i'll turn to you because you know we saw that eyewitness a short while ago you could really see that he was shaken up there is a sense of frustration there just walk us through you know on a typical saturday afternoon there in munster what would have been the scene what would have been the mood in this particular area where the incident took place well probably not much different from other parts of germany one of the first nice days today beautiful weather some scenes of the sun was out and that particular area. where. a lot of it is pretty. strain ised as you can see in the pictures as well. it's very picturesque people will be milling about. in this beautiful old pod of some of the tourists as well minster is a regional tourist hot spot it's a story place the end of the thirty year war was signed then the treaty and so it's

also a big university town and so lots of students you can imagine young people about of the street enjoying the sun and also in this particular place which is sort of a traditional place if you can compare it to munich with the whole four house would be in munich or larry famous famous areas you need to enjoy as and if you break that down on monday will be the restaurant where local beer they brew their own beer and it's where locals go interest as well it's quite a quite a nice and comfy and cozy cozy place and of course as we've seen there were tables being tipped over in the picture that we saw earlier. you know one can assume that . the place was full and brimming with people having a good time and. that happened so quite devastated and you know has another place that was full brimming with people when an incident like this happened was the

twenty sixteen christmas market attack in bright lights in berlin i mean that was really an incident that shocked a nation and it's one that you think when you see scenes like this now coming out of leicester can you draw parallels between the two already of course we can draw parallels in both cases there was a vehicle that was used as a weapon that was driven into a crowd of people. plus here in berlin around christmas time in two thousand and sixteen it was a forty ton truck a very very launch vehicle that was driven at high speed into a christmas market full of stores selling christmas good selling christmas food with lots of people the. and that attack was very clearly a terrorist attack the person who perpetrated it was somebody known as an islamic islamicists islamists and sympathizer. who was later in fact cornered in italy and then killed himself so there it was very clear that it was

a terrorist attack in this case today we do not know that yet and it seems possible that it was not a terrorist attack but still the parallels are clear and still there is a kind of copycat factor involved in these kind of attacks at least and how can you just clear something up for us for a second because correct me if i'm wrong but you know when we heard the the authorities speaking a short while ago they didn't seem as if they were willing to say yet that this was indeed an attack or have they have a sense you know it's further i think what they're not saying is that it was a an attack with a terrorist background i think what they are saying is that it was a deliberate somebody deliberately does know just this was a mistake you know there's not some let us down at the wheel or ok there's no chance a person killed himself after having done it that seems to implicate. you know deliberation a deliberate attack after which he killed himself so i think we can assume that it

was done with a certain amount of planning involved but we do not know the motive and they do seem to be seriously serious indications that the person was mentally disturbed i understand now from from my point. we have a resident of munster to talk with us a little bit more about you know the city the scene in the city today joining us on the phone and sir if you can hear me where phoning you now from from berlin perhaps you can tell us a little bit about what it was like today and bear in the city. yes good evening my name is peter i'm calling from inside living a little bit all titles of the central. city was about three hundred thousand people here and very very old tall and fifty thousand students and it was the surrey first day of the year when it was really really good weather so

it was about twenty three twenty four degrees in the afternoon. many many people were in the city and so this place where this all happens is directly in the old town that's a. really really busy place. tell us a little bit more about this area peter if you will you know where this alleged attack took place. well you must it must be that there is a lot of. the little inner ring. around the old tone where it's just a few metres to the city center and a lot of old churches coffee's boss and many people are making that point because it's. too famous restaurant for all the truth and. it's really a lovely place and exactly that happens. can you tell us what you've heard about

the incident and how you got that information. well the garden as i told them in the north and the suburbs let's say and. we heard a helicopter flying and police. marching horns and a lot of traffic coming up and then it was in the news with the internet on the radio and the broadcast of that something had happened. and then it came people piecework what exactly did happen so that we got a few peter we've we've been talking a lot with our correspondents you know here about the memories of the broadside tat attack in twenty sixteen in berlin you know where a vehicle was weaponized and used to kill people and we're just wondering you know there in munster are there generally any security measures in place in the center of the city where this happened and has that changed over you know the past years.

well i mean in this specific day i don't really think so when there are big. city parties and stuff fest and things like this they are placing trucks in front of all of the drive ins to make sure that not enough that there's no big trucks because all because can enter but basically this is the. street where supply is that there are many many shops which we need to get reached every day so you cannot you cannot secure ever see because it's a public road and good for that to support it is the type of road where a vehicle could have picked up a bit of speed there. not really because it's going from from the north of little bit down here that says to some very narrow couple stone streets which is. a small road let's say you of course can speed up and drive there was it was it was

speeded yes of course it can but not this cost you can drive fast yes of course peter did you ever imagine that something like this could have happened in your city i mean where is where where did your mind to go when when you heard the that this happens. everything can have more we have a city. it wasn't when they have the parties in the city they said she was the places my wife was in the city in the morning and she just walked by is this place a few hours later earlier so that's strange it is strange definitely i mean we are really in a pretty. safe safe safe city normally spoke. what would you say is the mood in this city right now. i think that everybody is shocked that facebook messages from many many people who are off the. front of these is in south africa and here was

a leo right and many people opposed the security alert that everything would go everybody the sultan's if you see here you know after an incident like this of course there's always the autopsy people wondering if anything could have been done differently and i'm wondering you know from your perspective as a as a citizen would you have any suggestions i mean do you do you feel safe. well normally i do because. you can walk over the street and somebody can catch you. just haven't and in majorca. we are. of course somewhere in the middle of nowhere here a little bit but it's a big poland was three hundred thousand people and everything can have all the time of course but in general as you say fiesta. peter we're being broadcast all around the world right now what would you like the world to know about your thirty and how

you think the your city will cope with this going forward. well i'm very sure that we will cope with it i'm sure that they will receive the security in the city too to avoid things like this the discussions were on since quite a while two of you have to drive with the truck on a public road. this is something which you cannot avoid at all but you can try to minimize. incidents of to make it go to low trans pull.