At least one person was killed and 30 were injured after a man drove a vehicle into a crowd of people outside a West Berlin church. Witnesses revealed that a silver Renault Clio drove into people on Rankestrasse street on Wednesday morning around 10:30 am.
Two passersby held the driver, who was trying to flee the scene. He is under police custody now. But, officials have not released any details about the man and have refused to say anything about whether the crash was deliberate.
Car Drove Very Fast
Witnesses said the car drove 'very fast' towards the pavement before mounting it several times, traveling around 600ft through crowds before crashing through the front window of a Douglas perfume shop.
The crash happened just yards away from where an Islamist extremist killed 12 people in 2016
"I'm in the situation center and keep myself informed. My thoughts and my deepest sympathy are with all those affected," said Berlin's Senator for the Interior Iris Spranger.
Local media reports claimed that the dead person is a teacher and a number of students are among the injured.
"The man drove his Renault Clio at around 10:26 a.m. on the corner of Ku'damm and Rankestrasse onto the sidewalk of Ku'damm and into a group of people," said police, according to Bild.
Man Identified As A German-Armenian
They also revealed that the man is a 29-year-old German-Armenian living in Berlin but it is still unclear whether the man acted with intent or whether it was a bad accident. He is currently being interrogated by police officials.
The area has been secured by heavily armed police officers and a rescue helicopter was also deployed at the site.
"Part of the reconstruction of the event, of course, is to look at the extent to which this was an intentional act or a traffic accident that may have occurred because of an exceptional medical situation," said Berlin police spokesman Thilo Cablitz.
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