For politicians, one thing is certain: the terrible events on Kurfürstendamm were not an accident. After Chancellor Scholz, Berlin’s mayor Giffey is now also talking about an amoktact. Meanwhile, six of the victims are still in mortal danger. In total, the perpetrator killed 29 people and one woman.
According to the police, six people are still in a life-threatening condition after the death drive in Berlin. According to the latest information, 29 people were injured in addition to the dead teacher, said a police spokesman. This includes people who are in shock. In addition to those affected from the group of students with whom the killed teacher from Hesse was traveling in Berlin, there are currently 14 other people affected. According to the police and fire brigade, further fluctuations in the numbers are possible due to the dynamic development.
According to the police, seven young people and a teacher from the group of students from Hesse are still in the hospital. According to the fire department, a total of 22 people were treated in Berlin hospitals in connection with the death trip. “We ourselves took care of 17 people on site and took them to hospitals,” said a spokesman. Six of those affected were life-threatening and three were seriously injured. Other people would have reported themselves to clinics.
The majority of those affected were injured when the driver drove into the group of people on the corner of Ku’damm and Rankestrasse. There were other injuries when the car landed almost 200 meters further on at the corner of Tauentzienstrasse and Marburger Strasse in the window of a perfumery.
Meanwhile, the deadly events on Kurfürstendamm are classified by politicians as an amok act. After Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey also made the following statement: “It tightened up last night,” said Giffey on RBB Inforadio. The police investigations made it clear “that it was a case of a severely mentally impaired person killing himself”. With the help of an interpreter, an attempt is made to “find out more from the sometimes confused statements that he makes”.
It is still being determined whether the posters related to Turkey that were in the German-Armenian’s murder vehicle played a role. Giffey spoke of a “dark day in Berlin’s city history”.
Scholz had tweeted on Wednesday evening: “The cruel shooting on Tauentzienstraße affects me deeply.” It also said: “The trip of a Hessian school class to Berlin ends in a nightmare. We are thinking of the relatives of the dead and the injured, including many children. I wish you all a speedy recovery.”
In his act, the driver killed a teacher from Hesse on Wednesday morning and injured 14 people, mainly from the associated group of students. Several youths were critically injured. The driver – a 29-year-old German-Armenian living in Berlin – was caught and taken to a hospital.
The police investigations are conducted by a homicide commission, not by state security, which would be responsible for a politically motivated crime. On Wednesday, among other things, the driver’s apartment in Charlottenburg was searched. The man is said to have been known to the police for several crimes, but not in connection with extremism.
The suspect’s sister told a “Bild” reporter: “He has serious problems.” According to the newspaper, neighbors expressed their astonishment “that he is capable of such an act.” In the evening, numerous people commemorated the killed woman and the injured in the Memorial Church.
The area where the fatal incident took place is often very busy because of the many shops, cafes and sights. It is a magnet for tourists from home and abroad. 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. 13 people died and more than 70 were injured as a result of the long-term effects. The case on Wednesday also brought back memories in Berlin of a rampage on the A100 city motorway in August 2020, when a driver deliberately rammed three motorcyclists. He was committed to psychiatry by the court.
