A man suffers a series of double-drive collisions in Berlin, injuring six people, three of them seriously, in what Gerguy’s prosecutors described Wednesday as an alleged Islamist attack.
Police said the guy caused three crashes on the Hundred motorway in the Community of Tempelhof-Schoeneberg at a time before 7pm (5pm GMT) on Tuesday, before claiming that a box in his car contained a “dangerous object. “
The 30-year-old Iraqi had targeted motorcyclists in an “almost hunt,” a prosecutor’s office spokesman said at a press conference.
Local media reported that the guy had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) when he came out of his mutilated black Opel Astra.
The black Opel Astra mutilated on the Berlin highway one hundred after its driving force caused 3 wounded Photo: AFP / Odd ANDERSEN
“The option of an Islamist attack is ruled out,” prosecutors said in a statement.
“The defendant’s statements recommend an Islamist motivation” for his actions. “There are also symptoms of mental instability,” they added.
The suspect was arrested for attempted murder in at least three cases and, later in the day, faced trial of who will be admitted to a psychiatric facility.
One of the wounded was a firefighter, Berlin Interior Minister Andreas Geisel said, adding that he was “dismayed that other innocent people have been victims of a crime that came here out of nowhere. “
“We will have to be aware that Berlin remains the center of Islamist terrorism,” he added.
The scene after a boy suffered a series of injuries on the highway in Berlin Photo: AFPTV / Odd ANDERSEN
German media reported that a motorcyclist was also among the wounded.
The suspect had posted clues on social media that he was planning an attack, according to the DPA news agency.
He had posted photos of the car used in the attack on Facebook, as well as slogans, according to the report, mentioning a prosecutor’s office spokesman.
The driving force had “targeted motorcyclists in particular,” said prosecutors Photo: AFP/Odd ANDERSEN
“No one will come or they will all die,” the suspect said, quoted in the Bild newspaper, after getting out of his car and hitting the steel box on the roof.
His vehicle was stopped after colliding with a motorcycle.
However, when police opened the box with high-pressure jets of water, it turned out to involve tools.
The road closed for several hours, prompting severe traffic jams, and drivers were asked to leave their cars as a precautionary measure.
Investigators have not discovered any link to a terrorist organization, prosecutors said.
People related to Islamic extremism have carried out several violent attacks in Germany.
The deadliest was the fuss of a truck at a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016 that killed 12 people.
The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, supporter of the Jihadist Organization Islamic State.
More recently, an Islamist and his wife were convicted of making plans for a biological bomb attack in Germany in 2018 with the fatal poison ricina.
The couple had ordered castor seeds, explosives and steel ball bearings over the Internet to build the poison bomb.
The guy was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison while his wife was sentenced to eight years in June.
Since 2013, the number of harmful Islamists in Germany has quintuple to 680, according to security services.