Terror ride: teacher dead, several students injured

Created: 06/08/2022Updated: 06/08/2022 21:37

People hold a memorial service in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

© Christoph Soeder/dpa

Screaming people, seriously injured, sirens: near the Berlin Memorial Church, memories of the 2016 terrorist attack awoke on Wednesday.

However, the police do not want to jump to conclusions.

Berlin – A group of students from Hesse was hit by a driver near the Berlin Memorial Church, and their teacher was killed.

As far as the police know, 14 people were injured on Wednesday evening, several of them life-threateningly.

A police spokeswoman said that it was exclusively people from the group of students with whom the teacher had been traveling in Berlin.

The background was not yet clear, the sadness and sympathy from all over Germany was enormous.

According to dpa information from police circles, the suspect, who was caught after the incident and taken to a hospital, is said to have mental problems.

In the car driven by the 29-year-old German-Armenian living in Berlin, documents and posters with inscriptions were found.

"There is no real letter of confession," said Berlin's Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger (SPD).

Police circles had previously said that a letter of confession had been found in the car.

Spranger spoke of "posters" that would contain statements about Turkey.

There was no mention of a random accident in the statements.

Berlin's police chief Barbara Slowik emphasized in the evening on the RBB that investigations are really being carried out in all directions.

Mental impairments cannot be ruled out, but neither can any other background.

The investigation would be conducted by a homicide squad.

"At the moment we don't have any indication of a political act, so that we would let the state security take over the investigation, so to speak." Among other things, the driver's apartment in Charlottenburg was searched.

The investigators also expect a lot from videos and photos of witnesses.

In the evening, meanwhile, numerous people commemorated the killed woman and the injured in the Memorial Church.

Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens), Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey and Senator for Education Astrid-Sabine Busse (both SPD), but also emergency services from the fire brigade and police were on site.

Many citizens also expressed their deep sympathy during the prayer.

"Brutal violence" broke out on unsuspecting people during the incident on Wednesday, 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.

The police set up a telephone hotline for relatives, and pastors were on site.

According to dpa information, the driver was driving a car that belonged to his older sister.

He is said to have been known to the police for several crimes, but not in connection with extremism.

According to the current status, the incident on Wednesday went like this: The man drove the small Renault car on the corner of Ku'damm and Rankestrasse late in the morning onto the sidewalk of Ku'damm and into the group of people.

Then he drove to the intersection and just under 200 meters further east on Tauentzienstrasse.

Shortly before the corner of Marburger Strasse, he steered the car off the road onto the sidewalk again, touched another car, crossed Marburger Strasse and landed in the window of a perfumery.

The Federal Government, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier were dismayed by what had happened.

"My thoughts are with the seriously and very seriously injured, with the fatality," said Steinmeier.

“And they are with those who had to experience terrible things.

My deepest sympathy goes to you, all your relatives and survivors.” Giffey promised support to those affected.

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The President of the Hessian State Parliament, Astrid Wallmann (CDU), expressed her deepest sympathy on behalf of the MPs.

"I am deeply affected by the horrific incident," said Wallmann in Wiesbaden.

"The Hessian state parliament is thinking of the relatives of the teacher who was killed and we hope that the injured will make a full recovery.

We also think of the children and passers-by who had to witness this horrific journey on site.”

Hesse's Minister of Education Alexander Lorz (CDU) said: "We immediately sent emergency care teams to Bad Arolsen to help relatives, classmates and teachers." A team from the school is on the way to Berlin to help the young people on site as well as to support their parents.

The students concerned should find a contact point in their school.

The school will start regular operations this Thursday and at the same time receive the students who are being brought back from Berlin by bus, said the mayor of Bad Arolsen, Marko Lambion (independent).

A graduating class with 24 students at a secondary school in Bad Arolsen was affected.

They should be cared for and taken care of.

The scene of the accident is not far from the Memorial Church on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

In December 2016, an Islamist assassin drove into a Christmas market there.

A total of 13 people died and more than 70 were injured as a result of the long-term effects.

The area where the fatal incident took place on Wednesday is often very busy due to the many shops, cafes and sights.

It is a magnet for tourists from home and abroad.

The case also brought back memories in Berlin of a rampage on the A100 city autobahn in August 2020, when a driver deliberately rammed three motorcyclists.

He was committed to psychiatry by the court.

dpa