BERLIN –
A man drove a car into pedestrians in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday, killing one person and seriously injuring nine others, rescue services said.
The man crashed into people on a street corner around 10:30 a.m. before returning the car to the road and then crashing into a shop window around a block further, police spokesman Tilo Kablitz said.
Six people are in danger of death and three others are seriously injured, said fire spokesman Adrian Wentzel. Police said more than a dozen people were injured.
Police did not immediately confirm reports in the German media that the dead and wounded were part of a school group, but said they “seem to belong together”.
The driver was apparently detained by passers-by before being quickly arrested by a police officer who was near the scene, Kablitz said. He said police were trying to determine whether he had intentionally entered pedestrians or whether it was an accident, probably caused by emergency medical services.
Police later tweeted that the driver was a 29-year-old German from an Armenian living in Berlin. They did not give more details and it was not immediately clear what if he told them something during the interrogation.
A large number of rescue vehicles and first aid teams were at the scene.
Berlin Mayor Francisco Giffe wrote on Twitter that she was “deeply shocked by the incident.”
German Interior Ministry spokesman Maximilian Kal said it was “too early” to say whether it was an accident or a deliberate act.
American-British actor John Barrowman, who was at a nearby store with his partner at the time of the crash, described the scene as a “slaughterhouse”. A large number of police and first aid teams, including a helicopter, were on the scene, he said.
The incident took place at one end of the Kurfuerstendamm shopping boulevard and near Breitscheidplatz, where an extremist attacked a vehicle at a Christmas market in 2016, killing 13 people.
In an accident in 2019 in the center of Berlin, a jeep crashed into a group of pedestrians, killing four people. The driver suffered an epileptic seizure and went out on the sidewalk.
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Jill Lawless of London contributed to this report
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