Berlin - One person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a car drove into a group of people at a busy shopping district in central Berlin on Wednesday, police said. The driver was briefly detained by passers-by before being handed to police after the car smashed through a shop front, according to a police spokesman Thilo Cablitz. It was not clear whether the crash was intentional, police said. The accident happened at around 10:30 am (0830 GMT) just across from Breitscheidplatz, where an Islamic State group sympathiser ploughed a truck through a Christmas market in 2016, killing 12.
Around 130 emergency personnel were deployed to the scene, where several people were seriously injured and some were airlifted by helicopter for treatment.
“There are seriously injured people among the more than a dozen injured,” said Cablitz.
The silver Renault Clio with a Berlin licence plate first drove into a crowd at the corner of Tauentzienstrasse and Rankestrasse, before returning to the road and then ramming into the shop front on Marburgerstrasse about 150 metres (165 yards) away.