MUNICH: Police arrested an Afghan asylum seeker at the scene of what German leaders labelled a car ramming `attack` that injured 28 people, some seriously, in the southern city of Munich on Thursday.

The carnage came on the eve of a high-profile security conference in the Bavarian city and amid a heated immigration debate ahead of Feb 23 elections following a spate of similar attacks. Even as the incident was unfolding, another Afghan man was facing a trial separately for a knife attack that killed a policeman and wounded five others at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim last year.

The vehicle, a Mini Cooper, barrelled into a demonstration held by trade unionists, leaving a trail ofinjured and their belongings scattered on the street, including a baby stroller.

Police who rushed to the scene fired a shot at the battered car and detained the driver, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was named by German media as Farhad N.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the `awful` attack and promised severe consequences.

`From my point of view it is quite clear: this attacker cannot count on any mercy, he must be punished and he must leave the country, Scholz told reporters.

Shoes, glasses and the infant stroller were left littered in the wake of the suspected attack, which follows a deadly car rampage at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg in December.

Alexa Graef, a witness, said she was `shocked` after seeing the car drive into the crowd, `which looked deliberate`. `I hope it`s the last time I see anything like that,` said Graef, whose office overlooked the junction where the incident happened.

Mannheim trial The defendant in the Mannheim trial, only partially named as Sulaiman A., allegedly used a large hunting knife in a stabbing ram-page targeting a rally by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.

The knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer who rushed in to help, and who died two days later of his wounds. Sulaiman A. appeared apathetic as the indictment was read out at the higher regional court in Stuttgart. His defence lawyers Axel Kuester and Mehmet Okur said that during the trial, he would only provide information about himself and not about the charges.

The lawyers declined to comment on whether their client might have a psychiatric disorder, but Kuster said he had learned to speak perfect German and `comes across as extremely pleasant and nice`.

Judge Herbert Anderer said the trial would focus only on whether the suspect was guilty and would avoid getting dragged into wider social or political issues. `That means we may only briefly touch on some questions and aspects that may be of greater interest to certain people,` he said.

Sulaiman A., who was aged 25 at the time of the May 31 attack, was shot and wounded at the site before he was also arrested.-AFP