A horrifying Berlin car crash resulted in the death of at least one people and the injury of several others after the vehicle rammed through a crowd of pedestrians in a busy shopping district on Wednesday.
Officials said that the suspect was a 29-year-old man who was identified as a German-American national. The incident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a well-known Berlin landmark. The vehicle then crashed into a shop window on an adjoining street, said the city's police and fire department in a statement.
Horrifying Berlin Car Crash
Berlin's top security official, Iris Spranger, said that among the victims was a woman who was a teacher that was accompanying a group of high school students on a trip from the German state of Hesse. Fourteen of those students were among the injured, said Berlin police, adding that the relatives of the victims have been informed.
Six of the injured victims sustained life-threatening injuries and three others were seriously hurt, said the Berlin fire department. Authorities noted that in total, the brutal car crash resulted in 17 people getting injured, as per CNN.
Authorities said that the suspect was apparently detained by members of the public at the scene and then later arrested by a police officer who was in the area, said Berlin police spokesman Thilo Cablitz. Police are now trying to determine whether the man deliberately rammed into the crowd or if it was simply an accident.
Berlin Police President Barbara Slowik said in a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that the suspect was currently in the hospital. Slowik added that authorities currently do not have conclusive evidence for a politically motivated act.
According to CBS News, Spranger said that posters were found inside the man's car "in which he expressed views about Turkey." In a later interview, Spranger said that Germany's domestic intelligence agency had no immediate information on the man and authorities were still checking whether or not he was previously known to police.
Potential Motives
Spranger added that they needed to clarify whether or not the suspect was ill or whether or not he took drugs prior to the incident. She said, "We can't rule anything out at the moment, but there is no claim of responsibility."
John Barrowman, an American-British actor who was in a nearby store with his partner at the time of the crash, described the scene as "carnage." He noted that there were large numbers of police and first responders attending to the victims.
In a statement, Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said that she was "deeply shocked" by the incident and noted that authorities were keeping an open mind about potential motives. She said that before speculating, the important thing to do was to let the police and fire service conduct their investigation.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the "horrific act" had deeply affected him and expressed his hopes that the people involved would make a quick recovery. In a Twitter post, he said, "The trip of a school class from Hesse to Berlin ends in a nightmare. We think of the relatives of the dead and the injured, including many children. I wish all of them a speedy recovery," Sky News reported.
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