‘Around 20’ hurt after car drives into pedestrians in Munich, police say
(Douglas Sacha/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Munich police said “around 20” people were injured after a “vehicle drove into a group of people” in the center of the city on Thursday morning.
“The driver was able to be secured on site and currently poses no further danger,” police said in a post in German on social media.
Police said in an update that they didn’t yet have info on the severity of the injuries.
Police said the incident occurred in the area of Dachauer Street and Seidle Street in the heart of Munich, close to the city’s central train station.
Police said a “major operation” was underway, urging residents to avoid the area in order to assist emergency responders.
Thursday’s vehicle crash came less than two months after a car plowed through a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing two people and injuring nearly 70 others, local officials said at the time.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
(LONDON and ROME) — The pope rested peacefully overnight after his prognosis was “lifted” on Monday as he begins his 26th straight day in the hospital, the Vatican said.
Vatican sources told ABC News that Francis’ prognosis being lifted means he’s no longer in imminent danger, but the clinical picture still remains complex.
The 88-year-old pontiff will continue “for additional days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment” due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the significant infectious picture presented at hospitalization,” the Vatican said.
“The improvements recorded in previous days have further consolidated, as confirmed by both blood tests and clinical objectivity and the good response to pharmacological therapy. For these reasons, the doctors decided to lift the prognosis,” the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in a statement Monday.
The pope will move back to noninvasive mechanical ventilation and will continue an antibiotic treatment, the Vatican sources said.
Francis’ doctors said there are positive signs of the pontiff’s recovery, but caution remains, according to the Vatican sources.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.
Thursday will mark the 12th anniversary of when Pope Francis was voted to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who previously resigned.
ABC News’ Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Twenty-one passengers were killed after a train in Pakistan was attacked and hundreds were taken hostage by the militant Balochistan Liberation Army on Tuesday, according to the Pakistani military.
Four military members conducting a rescue operation and 33 terrorists, members of the BLA, have been killed, according to the military.
The military operation has ended, according to a Pakistani military official.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official told ABC News at least 450 people were taken hostage on the train and said six Pakistani military personnel were killed.
The separatist militant group claimed it had taken 182 military and security personnel hostage on the train, according to a post on Telegram, but said they had released the majority of the civilians on board. The group claimed a higher number of casualties in the attack, saying they killed 20 Pakistani military personnel and shot down a drone.
The BLA had threatened to kill all the hostages if Pakistan’s military tries to rescue them, the official said.
The BLA blew up part of the track, forcing the train to stop, before they boarded and took control, according to the official.
The attack happened in mountainous area right before a tunnel, making a rescue very difficult, they said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and said the government would not make any concessions to “beasts who fire on innocent passengers.”
The train was trapped in a tunnel after the tracks were blown up and militants opened fire on it, reportedly injuring the driver, local authorities and police have told media.
The BLA believes the Balochistan region of Pakistan, in the country’s far west bordering Iran and Afghanistan, should be allowed to break off from Pakistan. They are well-known for committing terror attacks in Pakistan. The BLA also attacked Jaffar Express trains in August 2013 and October 2016.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SEOUL) — South Korean prosecutors formally indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday, charging him with insurrection over his brief imposition of martial law in December, according to opposition lawmakers and South Korean media.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo told a press conference, Reuters reported. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”
Yoon had declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government. A South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31.
The indictment follows Yoon’s arrest ten days ago, when South Korean prosecutors finally succeeded in forcing him to surrender at his residence after a prolonged stand-off with his presidential bodyguard.
Yoon has previously pledged to fight the charges. He has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
