One dead, six critical after car drives into pedestrians in Berlin

Berlin (dpa) – A woman is dead and six people are in life-threatening condition after a car struck pedestrians in a busy shopping district in the German capital of Berlin on Wednesday.

The fire brigade is now speaking of six people with life-threatening injuries after previously saying five. In addition, three were seriously injured and several slightly injured, a fire brigade spokesperson said at the scene. He did not give a total number.

Initially, the fire brigade had said that 30 people were injured. Police and the fire brigade later gave the number of injured as between eight and more than a dozen.

According to the police, a 29-year-old German-Armenian man drove his Renault compact car onto the pavement of Kurfürstendamm and into a group of people at the corner of the main shopping thoroughfare and Rankestraße at around 10:26 am (0826 GMT).

He then reportedly drove back onto the intersection and continued east on Tauentzienstraße, the continuation of Kurfürstendamm, for about 200 metres.

Shortly before reaching Marburger Straße, he steered off the street onto the pavement again, hit another car, before landing in the window of a perfume shop on Tauentzienstraße.

A covered body lay near an intersection after the incident.

The traffic police and the criminal investigation department are investigating whether it was an accident or a deliberate act, according to the police.

The police were temporarily holding the man, who lives in Berlin, for questioning.

A group of schoolchildren was involved in the incident, dpa has learned.

The police did not initially give any details because relatives still had to be informed.

The authorities released a phone number on Twitter for relatives to call to obtain information.

According to dpa information, the group of students did not come from Berlin.

Police and firefighters were attending to physical injuries and a team of emergency chaplains was at the scene to administer pastoral care.

Reverend Justus Münster, commissioner of the regional Protestant Church for Berlin’s emergency pastoral care, told dpa on Wednesday that 11 pastoral care workers were on duty.

According to him, the coordinator for emergency pastoral care in the Berlin Catholic archdiocese, Brother Norbert Verse, was also present.

A spokesman for the fire brigade told dpa at the scene that a post had been set up at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church to provide psychosocial emergency care for witnesses.

A memorial service was due to be held in the church at 7 pm.

Police cordoned off the area extensively. Several ambulances and police cars were at the scene, according to a dpa reporter.

The location is sensitive as an Islamist terrorist attack took place at a Berlin Christmas market there in 2016.

Tunisian national Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker, drove a stolen lorry through the festive gathering in the square in front of the landmark church near Kurfürstendamm. Amri was shot dead in Italy several days after the attack.

Eleven people died in the immediate aftermath of the carnage, while another man who was severely injured died in October 2021. More than 70 people were injured.

The original driver of the truck was shot dead by the assailant in a hijacking hours before the market ramming.