‘Berlin terror attack man drove into motorcyclists’
AN IRAQI-BORN man deliberately drove his car into motorcycles along a stretch of Berlin motorway, leaving at least one person in a life-threatening condition in what German officials said was a terror attack.
“According to the current state of our investigation, we assume this was an Islamist-motivated attack,” Berlin’s senator for the interior, Andreas Geisel, said.
“A religiously motivated background cannot be excluded.”
Six people were injured, three of them severely, when the 30-year-old man allegedly drove into several vehicles, intentionally hitting motorcycles, on Tuesday evening, Berlin prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.
The crashes at three different locations happened during rush hour shortly before 7pm local time and led to a complete closure of one of the main traffic arteries of Berlin.
Investigators did not reveal the man’s identity, as is customary in Germany, but local media identified the suspect as Sarmad D.
He is being investigated for three cases of attempted murder.
There were also indications that the man had mental health issues.
“The fact that the suspect was possibly suffering from psychological problems does not make this issue any easier,” Mr Geisel said.
“If personal problems mix with religiously loaded ideas, this can lead to uncontrollable acts – yesterday’s events have shown in a very painful way how vulnerable our society is.”
Police and prosecutors said they were investigating if the suspect was linked to any terrorist group but had not found any indications of that yet.
The suspect, who was driving a black Opel Astra, stopped on the motorway after the third crash and put an old ammunition box on the roof of his car, claiming it had explosives inside, the statement said.
Several media reported that the man shouted “allahu akbar” or “God is great” as he got out of his car.
The Bild daily reported that he also shouted: “Nobody gets closer, or you will all die.”
The suspect then rolled out a prayer carpet and started praying, daily paper Tagesspiegel reported.
A police officer of Arabic immigrant background then approached the man, talked to him in Arabic, pulled him away from the car and detained him, the paper reported.
According to Tagesspiegel, the man is known to Berlin police.
He was born in Baghdad in 1990 and lived in a refugee home in Berlin.