A motorist rammed passers-by in central Berlin on Wednesday morning, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others, nine of them seriously, firefighters told AFP.
The unexplained gesture of a 29-year-old driver who ran into passers-by on Wednesday in a central artery of Berlin caused the death of a teacher and injured several students who were on a school trip in the capital.
The vehicle, a metallic gray Renault Clio, crashed into the window of a perfume store around 10:30 a.m., following hitting a group of pedestrians, not far from the scene where a deadly truck attack took place in 2016. ram.
>> Listen to the 12:30 p.m. topic:
No evidence of a political act
The crowd was great at this time of day in this commercial and tourist district located near the zoological garden, west of the capital. The toll is heavy: in addition to the deceased teacher, the emergency services counted “more than a dozen injured”, six of whom are “between life and death” and three others are “seriously injured”.
Among the injured are teenagers from the Land of Hesse (west) who were on a school trip to Berlin, according to the authorities of this region. In addition to the deceased teacher, another of their teachers was seriously injured. Police arrested the driver, a German-Armenian, but say they do not know at this stage whether he acted intentionally or not.
“So far we have no tangible evidence of a political act,” said Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik at the end of the day.
About Turkey
Reports of the discovery of a claim letter in the vehicle have been denied. Writings containing remarks “regarding Turkey” were however discovered in the car, according to a representative of the Berlin administration Iris Spranger.
Many police were deployed to the scene, also located just next to the square where on December 19, 2016, an Islamist ram truck attack was carried out on a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
“I was sitting near the fountain and I heard a loud noise, then I saw a person fly in the air” following being hit, told AFP a witness, Frank Vittchen. The driver “left at high speed on the sidewalk but he did not brake”, then “he returned to the road and fled”, he added.
>> Read once more: Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin truck attack
afp / exercise / hkr
