Teacher killed and 14 children injured as car ploughs into crowd in Berlin

8 June 2022, 10:08 | Updated: 8 June 2022, 18:40

A 29-year-old German-Armenian has been arrested after he allegedly drove a car into a crowd in Berlin killing a teacher and injuring 14 children.

The dual citizen - named locally as Gor H. due to Germany privacy laws - allegedly drove a silver Renault Clio into a group of people on Tauentzienstrausse, a busy street lined with shops and cafes, around 10:30am.

A 51-year-old female teacher from Hesse who was in Berlin on a school trip was killed. Police said many others were wounded including 14 children and a second teacher with the same class.

Five were in a critical condition and three were seriously hurt, the German capital's fire service said. Among them was a pregnant woman who suffered a broken hip.

The person who died was a female teacher and that students are among the injured, Die Welt reported. The children are understood to have been on a school field trip.

Witnesses said the car mounted the pavement "several times" as it sped more than 150m through crowds before rejoining the road.

The car then mounted the pavement a second time, hitting more people and then crashing through the glass front of a Douglas perfume shop.

The man, who was known to police in connection with property crimes, attempted to flee the scene but was tackled by bystanders who pinned him down until police arrived, witnesses said.

At least one body wrapped in blankets was seen in a cordoned-off area in the middle of the road.

Police have not yet said whether the crash was intentional or an accident but a source with knowledge of the matter told Bild officers had found a "confession note" inside the vehicle.

Footage showed officers putting the handcuffed suspect in the back of a BMW.

Reuters said the incident happened near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the scene of an attack in December 2016 by a Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links who stole a truck, killed its driver and then killed 11 people when he drove it into a Christmas market.

It took place on Rankestrasse, near the Kurfürstendamm road that leads from the centre to the west of the city, close to the Gedaechtniskirche church, a famous landmark in Berlin.

Images showed some of the 130 emergency workers who went to the scene attending to a number of victims, some of whom are under covers and on stretchers.

Initial casualty estimates said that some 30 people had been hurt but that total was later revised to eight.

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The Berlin Morgenpost said armed police were at the scene and a rescue helicopter is "on duty".

A press conference about what happened is slated for the afternoon.

Actor John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and a spin off show, was caught up in the carnage.

He described hearing a "loud bang" from inside a shop in the area.

In a video posted to Twitter, he said: "The car came down onto the pavement. Then has come onto the road over there, has hit somebody then has gone down the road and come back onto the pavement… and gone through a bunch of people and then right into a store front window."

“There's a lot of police, there's a dead body in the middle of the road, and then over here there's all of the emergency services that are trying to help victims and people," he said in a video from the scene.

"There's a lot of people walking with limps and injuries."

Speaking to Sky News, he added: "How horrible that this morning these people got up to just go through a regular day, they were going through their daily business. I mean we were shopping, but if you think if we'd have come out of that store one minute earlier...

"We are no experts but this looks intentional," he added, speaking alongside husband Scott Gill.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "My thoughts are with the badly and very badly injured, with the fatality."

"My deepest sympathy goes to you, all your relatives and survivors."