BERLIN — A woman was killed by a car that ploughed into a bus stop in the western German town of Recklinghausen on Thursday, media quoted police as saying.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash, which also left nine other people injured.

A police spokeswoman told mass-selling Bild newspaper the woman had been killed and that the driver of the car, who was among the injured, was apparently trying to take his own life.

Police in Recklinghausen could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, security was reinforced on Thursday at several airports in western Germany, police said, amid some unconfirmed media reports of a terrorist threat.

Heavily armed police were patrolling late Thursday in several airports, including Stuttgart, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Friedrichshafen, and Mannheim, according to a federal police spokesman.

The reinforced presence of police will remain in place until further notice, the spokesman added.

At the same time there has been no disruption to flights, a spokeswoman for the airports said.

Some German media have speculated as an explanation for the beefed-up security the spotting of four men, including a militant, allegedly suspected of planning an attack, which police did not confirm.

Several days ago, the men were filmed by a surveillance camera at Stuttgart airport, the daily Tagesspiegel reported. They remained near the metal detectors without taking a flight and without baggage.

And Suedwestrundfunk, a media group in western Germany, reported that Moroccan authorities had informed their German counterparts that they had intercepted conversations referring to a possible attack at an airport near the German-French border.

Small airports have also reinforced security controls “as a precaution”, police at Reutlingen said. — AFP