Man plows into motorcycles in German terror attack

A man drove his car in motorcycles along a stretch of highway in Berlin, killing at least one person with life-threatening injuries in what German officials said Wednesday, a deliberate terrorist attack.

“Given the current state of our investigation, we assume this was an Islamist motivated attack,” said Berlin Security Senator Andreas Geisel. “A religiously motivated background cannot be ruled out.”

Six people were injured, three of them seriously, when the 30-year-old man allegedly drove into several cars, intentionally hitting motorcycles, on Tuesday night, Berlin prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.

The accidents at three different locations occurred during disembarkation on the BAB100 motorway shortly before 7 a.m. local time and led to a complete closure of one of Berlin’s main thoroughfares.

Investigators did not reveal the identity of the man, as is customary in Germany, but local media identified the suspect as Iraqi-born Sarmad D. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder.

There were also indications that the man had problems with mental health.

“The fact that the suspect may have been suffering from psychological problems does not make this problem any easier,” Geisel said. “When personal issues mix with religiously charged ideas, this can lead to uncontrollable actions – yesterday’s events have shown in a very painful way how vulnerable our society is.”

Prosecutor Martin Steltner told reporters they were investigating whether the suspect was linked to one terrorist group or if other people were involved in the attack, but have yet to find any evidence of that.

However, investigators were looking for tips about the man possibly having contacts with extremists, Steltner added.

The suspect, who was driving a black Opel Astra, stopped on the highway after the third accident and put an old ammunition box on the roof of his car, claiming it had explosives inside, the statement said.

Several media outlets reported that the man in God Arabic cried “God is great” when he got out of his car. De Bild reported daily that he also shouted: “No one comes closer, or you will all die.”

The suspect then rolled out a prayer rug and began praying, the daily newspaper Tagesspiegel reported. A police officer then approached the man, spoke to him in Arabic, pulled him away from the car and held him, the paper reported.

According to Tagesspiegel, the man is known to police in Berlin. He was born in Baghdad in 1990 and lived in a refugee camp in Berlin. In 2018, he was arrested for injuring others and briefly taken to a mental institution, Tagesspiegel reported.

The German news agency DPA reported that the suspect apparently made references to his plans on Facebook for the attack. He posted photos of the car he later used in the alleged attack, as well as religious writings, it said.

After the man was arrested, hundreds of people who stabbed him in the nearby area were removed from their cars. Specialists opened the supposed ammunition box with a strong jet, but found only tools inside.

Among the three seriously injured people was one in critical condition with life-threatening head and back injuries, Steltner said. One of the three was a firefighter who went home from work.

“If a car is set up with set-up motorcycles, they have no chance,” Geisel said.

The suspect first hit a car on the highway near Wilmersdorf, and then drove into a motorcyclist, leaving him with major injuries. He hit a second person on a scooter, and eventually used his car to shove a third motorcyclist in front of another car, Attorney Steltner said. The suspect finally got out of his car at the Alboinstrasse exit in the Tempelhof district in Berlin.

The incident led to lengthy traffic congestion Tuesday night. The people who were led from the site where the suspect was detained and others who sat for hours on the main road received support from the German Red Cross, the Berlin fire brigade tweeted on Tuesday night.