Police vans stand in downtown Munster, Germany after a car crashed into bystanders (AP photo)

NEW DELHI: Four people were killed and several others wounded after a car plowed into a crowd in the city of Munster in Germany on Saturday.

German police confirmed that at least 20 people were injured after the car drove into them. The driver of the car shot himself to death shortly after the crash, reported AP.

The DPA news agency said the car rammed into people sitting in front of the famous Kiepenkerl bar in the city's historic downtown area. Police did not immediately say what had transpired, and urged people to avoid "speculation" about the incident.

"At 15:27 (1327 GMT), a vehicle drove into the outside area of the restaurant ... three people were killed, 20 injured, and six of those seriously injured," a police spokesman said, adding: "The perpetrator killed himself in the vehicle."

Several media outlets reported that the assailant was a German in his late 40s and believed to be psychologically disturbed" with no known links to "terrorism".

Images on social media showed smashed and upturned tables and chairs strewn across the pavement outside an eaterie in the centre of the picturesque medieval city.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident was a terror attack , though security sources told Reuters: "The scenario is such that an attack cannot be ruled out.”

Police said a suspicious object was found in the vehicle that ran into the pedestrians, and they're still examining what kind of an object it is and whether it's dangerous.

Investigators were also looking at the possibility that other suspects fled the scene, though they had no evidence this was the case, an official told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families''.

The incident came one year to the day after a truck attack in Stockholm that killed five people, and also evoked memories of a December 2016 truck attack in Berlin that killed 12 people.

The attacker, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri, hijacked a truck and murdered its Polish driver before killing another 11 people and wounding dozens more by ploughing the heavy vehicle through the festive market in central Berlin.

He was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later while on the run.

