Police said it was unclear whether the incident was an accident or a deliberate attack.
One person was killed and many injured when a driver drove his car into a crowd on a busy Berlin street. Authorities say it’s unclear whether the incident, which occurred around 10:30am local time (5am ET), was intentional or an accident.
A police spokesperson told reporters that the 29-year-old driver was arrested at the scene in the heart of West Berlin, on one of the busiest shopping streets.
It was determined that the victim was a teacher who went on a school tour with students from the countryside. Among those injured in the crash are at least 14 young people traveling – some in serious condition.
“Among those affected are those seriously injured,” said police spokesman Thilo Cablitz.
The police added that the driver, who has dual German and Armenian citizenship and lives in Berlin, was first detained by eyewitnesses. The agency did not confirm that a confession note was found in the car, some local newspapers reported.
Eyewitnesses said that the vehicle left the street and I was driving on the sidewalk until I crashed into a store window.
In the footage, a silver Renault Clio crashes into the window of a cosmetics store. There are also photos of a corpse wrapped in a blanket in the middle of the road.
According to the Berlin police force, there are about 130 emergency personnel at the scene.
Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey wrote on Twitter that she was “deeply shaken by this incident” and told residents that “the police are working to shed light on the matter”.
“During the day I will have an idea of the situation on the ground. I would like to thank the more than 130 rescuers for their quick response and assistance to those affected,” he added.
Actor John Barrowman tweeted that he was nearby when the incident occurred, and in a video posted at the scene, he said the car had repeatedly climbed the pavement before hitting the window.
The actor said, “The police performance is incredible. They are clearing the area.” “Right now there are helicopters arriving to transport people.”
Barrowman later told the BBC that the car drove past tables of people eating breakfast outside before hitting the window.
“It was just horrible,” he said. “I saw someone resurrected, someone else literally thrown onto a stretcher and placed in an ambulance.”
The incident occurred at the corner of the busy Rankestrasse and Tauentzienstrasse streets in western Berlin.
The area is across from Breitscheidplatz, where 12 people were killed in a terrorist attack in 2016 when a truck was deliberately driven into a crowd at a Christmas market.
The group, which calls itself the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the 2016 attack by a person whose asylum claim was later denied.
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source: Noticias
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