BERLIN — One
person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a man drove a car
into a crowd, including teenagers, at a busy shopping district in central
Berlin on Wednesday, police said.
اضافة اعلان
The driver was briefly detained by passers-by before
being handed over to police after the car smashed through a shop front,
according to police spokesman Thilo Cablitz.
It was not clear whether the crash was intentional.
The driver, a 29-year-old German-Armenian man, is being questioned, police told
AFP.
“There are seriously injured people among the more
than a dozen injured,” said Cablitz.
Eight people had been taken to hospital and five
were in a life-threatening condition, said Adrian Wenzel, a spokesman for the
fire service.
The German government is “very concerned and
shocked” by the “terrible incident in Berlin”, said a spokeswoman, adding that
their thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.
The incident happened at around 10:30am just across
from Breitscheidplatz, where
Daesh sympathizer ploughed a truck through a
Christmas market in 2016, killing 12.
The silver Renault Clio with a Berlin license plate
first mounted the sidewalk on the corner of Tauentzienstrasse and Rankestrasse,
hitting a group of mostly teenagers, before returning to the road.
It then rammed into the shop front on Marburger
Strasse about 150–200m away.
‘Happened so fast’
Frank Vittchen, a witness at
the scene, told AFP he was sitting at a fountain nearby when he “heard a big
crash and then also saw a person fly through the air”.
The vehicle drove “at high speed onto the pavement
and didn’t brake”, he said, with its windows shattering from the impact.
“It all happened so fast,” he said.
Another witness who declined to be named told AFP
the people hit by the car included a group of 15–16-year-olds, and that two
teachers were among those injured.
British-American
actor John Barrowman posted a series of videos on Twitter from the scene. “I
heard the bang and the crash when we were in a store and then we came out and
we just saw the carnage,” he said.
Germany has been on high alert for car ramming
attacks since the deadly 2016 Christmas market assault, with most carried out
by people who were found to have psychological issues.
In December 2020, a German man ploughed his car
through a pedestrian shopping street in the southwestern city of Trier, killing
four adults and a baby.
Earlier the same year, a German man rammed his car
through a carnival procession in the central town of Volkmarsen, injuring
dozens of bystanders, including children. He was sentenced to life in jail last
year.
In January 2019, another German man injured eight
people when he drove into crowds on New Year’s Eve in the western cities of
Bottrop and Essen. He was later taken into psychiatric care.
In April 2018, a German crashed his van into people
seated outside a restaurant in the city of Muenster, killing five before
shooting himself dead. Investigators later said he had mental health problems.
During the football World Cup in Germany in 2006, a
German man rammed his car into crowds gathered to watch a match at the
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, injuring some 20 people. The driver was later
committed to a psychiatric hospital.
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