One dead, at least a dozen schoolchildren hurt as car ploughs into Berlin crowd
Prosecutors have revealed new details about the driver of a car which ploughed through a Berlin crowd, killing one person and injuring 32, including schoolchildren.
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Prosecutors will seek to have a German-Armenian man accused of ploughing a car through a crowd in central Berlin kept in psychiatric care after he showed signs of mental illness, a spokesman for the prosecution said Thursday.
The 29-year-old has shown “relatively strong” signs of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, spokesman Sebastian Buechner said, a day after a schoolteacher was killed and 32 other people injured in the incident.
The suspect, who had an unspecified medication at his home, has also released his doctors from their confidentiality pledge, he added.
Further investigations will determine whether mental illness was the cause of the crime, but a political motive is currently being ruled out, Buechner said.
The suspect is accused of driving into passers-by in a busy shopping district in the German capital, mowing down a group of teenagers and killing their teacher before crashing through a shop window.
The rampage happened just across from Breitscheidplatz, where an Islamic State group sympathiser deliberately ploughed a truck into a Christmas market in 2016, killing 12.
In Wednesday’s case, the silver Renault Clio with a Berlin licence plate first mounted the sidewalk, hitting the secondary school students on a class trip, before returning to the road and then ramming into the front of a perfume shop.
A female teacher with the group from a school in Bad Arolsen, a small town in the central state of Hesse, was killed and a male teacher was seriously injured.
Frank Vittchen, a witness at the scene, told reporters he was sitting at a fountain nearby when he “heard a big crash and then also saw a person fly through the air”.
The car drove “at high speed onto the pavement and didn’t brake”, he said, with its windows shattering from the impact.
Media reports of the suspect fleeing the scene and a confession letter found in the car had stoked fears the incident may have been a terrorist attack.
However, Berlin interior minister Iris Spranger had on Wednesday said there was no “conclusive evidence of a political act” and the attack seemed to have been “committed by someone suffering from psychological problems”.
Germany has seen several car rammings 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.
ONE DEAD, AT LEAST A DOZEN CHILDREN INJURED
One person was killed and at least 14 schoolchildren injured when a man drove a car into a crowd, at a busy shopping district in central Berlin on Wednesday, police said.
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.
Berlin Police: The suspect first drove into a group of people and then into a shop window in Tauentzien street. He was stopped by passers-by and handed over to the police. He is 29 years old, lives in Berlin, and is a German citizen of Armenian descent. #Berlinhttps://t.co/OPwyCkoYOS
— Peter R. Neumann (@PeterRNeumann) June 8, 2022
The injured children were on a school trip from the central German state of Hesse, according to reports. One of their teachers was killed and a second teacher was among those seriously hurt.
“Their teacher died at the scene,” Berlin police wrote on Twitter.
“Their loved ones have been informed and are being cared for.
“There are seriously injured people among the more than a dozen injured.”
At least five people of those injured are in a life-threatening condition, said Adrian Wenzel, a spokesman for the fire service.
An apparent confession letter was found in the car., according to Germany’s Bild newspaper which cited an investigator as saying: “(This was) by no means an accident – someone on the rampage, an ice-cold killer.”
The city’s state interior minister, Iris Spranger, denied there was a confession letter, instead claiming placards were apparently discovered in the vehicle.
Police said they could not confirm reports that he had left a note in his car.
We think we have witnessed a terrorist attack here in Berlin we’re not sure there’s a lot of people dead bodies all over the place we’ve seen a car that came down the road and ended up in a storefront covering three city blocks it’s pretty horrific. #berlinpic.twitter.com/Xp1bkZBGt0
— John Barrowman MBE (@JohnBarrowman) June 8, 2022
Bad Arolsen Mayor Marko Lambion said a bus was on its way to pick up the children from Berlin. “We’re doing everything we can to bring them home,” he said at the press conference.
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 local time just across from Breitscheidplatz, where an Islamic State group sympathiser ploughed a truck through a Christmas market in 2016, killing 12.
‘FOR GOD’S SAKE, NOT AGAIN!’
Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said it was too early to know if the area had been chosen deliberately, but she said: “It’s a situation where you think, for God’s sake, not again!”
The silver Renault Clio with a Berlin licence 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 to 200 metres 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 was nearby when the incident took place and in a video posted from the scene said the car had repeatedly mounted the footpath before crashing into the storefront. “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 wrote on Twitter.
Update from the horrible situation in Berlin…We are ok. Jb pic.twitter.com/BsMXWP7Us0
— John Barrowman MBE (@JohnBarrowman) June 8, 2022
German national team star Jerome Boateng paid tribute to the victims of the Berlin crash.Writing a post on Twitter, the Lyon defender and Berlin native said: “My thoughts are with the victims and their families affected by that terrible act in my home town Berlin today.
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.
Originally published as One dead, at least a dozen schoolchildren hurt as car ploughs into Berlin crowd
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