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Mayor Franziska Giffey (middle), Senator for the Interior Iris Spranger (left): The act of a “mentally impaired person”
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
Berlin's Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger, described the death drive of a 29-year-old in the capital on Wednesday as an "amoktat".
"According to the latest information, today's events in Tauentzienstrasse are an amok act by a mentally handicapped person," Spranger explained on Twitter.
In the incident on Wednesday morning, a woman was killed and several people were injured, some seriously.
The 29-year-old alleged perpetrator drove into a crowd near the Berlin Memorial Church around 10:30 a.m. and hit a school class from Hesse.
Your teacher was killed, another teacher and several young people were injured, some seriously, as the governments in Berlin and Wiesbaden announced.
The Berlin police said in the evening that 14 students from Hesse were among the injured, some of them seriously.
According to the authorities in Berlin and Wiesbaden, the tenth class of a school in Bad Arolsen, Hesse, was on a class trip to Berlin.
According to the police, the driver has German and Armenian nationality and lives in Berlin.
According to Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik, the man was initially in a hospital for examinations on Wednesday.
More information on the alleged perpetrator can be found here.
The state governments of Berlin and Hesse as well as the federal government reacted with shock.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "deeply affected" by the "cruel shooting".
"We are thinking of the relatives of the dead and the injured, including many children," he said on Twitter.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also expressed his “deepest sympathy” to the relatives and bereaved.
Interior Senator Spranger ordered mourning flags to be displayed in Berlin on Thursday.
Numerous people commemorated the dead and injured on Wednesday evening in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
In addition to Mayor Giffey, the guests included Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) and Berlin Senator for Education Astrid-Sabine Busse (SPD), but also emergency services from the fire brigade and police.
Many citizens also expressed their deep sympathy during the prayer.
During the incident on Wednesday, unsuspecting people were subjected to "brutal violence," said General Superintendent Ulrike Trautwein at the prayer service.
"Such a situation leaves us speechless." Many witnesses and those affected still have the screams of the people in their ears, said Trautwein.
"It was a very touching service, and it was a way for many people to come to terms with that day," Giffey said.
Among the visitors to the service were some who had already been in the vicinity of the Memorial Church in December 2016.
At that time, an Islamist assassin drove into a Christmas market there.
»It was good that we came together here.
But it's hard to find comfort on a day like this," Giffey said.
wal/AFP/dpa
