One dead and nine injured after vehicle hits pedestrians in Berlin | Euronews

By Euronews   •   Updated:  08/06/2022 - 20:32

At least one person was killed and nine others injured after a vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in Berlin on Wednesday morning, rescue services said.

Berlin police spokesman Martin Dams said the incident happened near the popular Kurfuerstendamm shopping street in the west of the German capital.

Images from the scene show a small, silver Renault vehicle lodged inside a shop window.

The number of casualties was confirmed to The Associated Press by Berlin fire service spokesman Stefan Salzwedel. At least six people sustained life-threatening injuries and another three were seriously wounded, he said.

"A man is believed to have driven into a group of people," police said on Twitter, adding that the driver had been detained at the scene.

"It is not yet known whether it was an accident or a deliberate act," they added. "We are currently on the scene with about 130 emergency personnel. The vehicle, a small car, was secured on-site."

Police later confirmed to reporters that the driver was a 29-year-old German-Armenian who lives in Berlin.

Berlin’s top security official, Iris Spranger, said the woman killed was a teacher on a school trip with students from the central German state of Hesse.

The city's mayor Franziska Giffey wrote on Twitter that she was “deeply shocked by this incident.”

"I would like to thank the more than 130 emergency services for their quick response and care for those affected," Giffey added.

The incident occurred near the Breitscheidplatz where an extremist killed 13 people in a vehicle attack on a Christmas market in 2016.

In 2019, four people were killed when a car driver suffered an epileptic fit at the wheel and hit a group of pedestrians in central Berlin.