UPDATE: Teacher killed and students injured after car hit crowd in Berlin

A TEACHER was killed and 14 students were among those injured after a man drove a car into a small crowd in Berlin, Germany.

UPDATE 7.55 am (June 9) – The latest update from the horrific incident in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, June 8 has revealed that a teacher and some students were among the crowd mowed down by a car driven by a 29-year-old man of dual German-Armenian citizenship.

The teacher was killed and 14 students were among those injured after the driver mounted the pavement at around 10.30 am at the intersection of Rankestrasse and Tauentzienstrasse, in the western part of the city.

“The latest evidence suggests this is a case of a mentally ill person running amok,” Iris Spranger, Berlin’s state interior minister, said.

It was later reported by the Daily Star that the man, who was restrained by bystanders before police arrived to make the arrest, had placards relating to Turkey inside his silver Renault, which came to a stop after ploughing into a shop window.

Ms Spranger added: “There are said to have been placards inside (the vehicle) but there was no letter of confession.”

According to GBNews, the teacher along with a class of 10th-grade students – likely aged between 16 and 17-years-old – were visiting the area from the small town of Bad Arolsen in the central German state of Hesse.

UPDATE 3.55 pm (June 8) – More information has emerged from the tragic event in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, June 8 in which a driver drove his car into a crowd of people, killing one and injuring multiple people.

Berlin police told Sky News that the person detained at the scene was a 29-year-old man of dual German-Armenian citizenship and is believed to have been the driver.

As previously noted, actor John Barrowman was witness to the accident and speaking to Sky News, the former Doctor Who star described the horror and revealed that he had seen the dead body covered up and laying in the middle of the road.

“[My husband Scott Gill and I] saw a dead person in the middle of the road, covered up,” he said.

“The person came on the pavement by the Levi’s store and the bank, then drove onto the street, hit the person and killed them in the street, then came back onto the kerb, went down the kerb, through the cafe area and then into the storefront.

“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…”

He added: “We are no experts but this looks intentional – by the way the car went on the pavement.”

Mr Gill, a British architect, said: “There were chairs and tables smashed on the pavement – just a trail of destruction.

“You could see the car had zig-zagged on and off the pavement on the way down.”

“For the first 10-20 minutes it was just sheer chaos,” he added. “We walked right through it without really realising what was happening.”

Fighting back tears, Barrowman added: “We are quite shocked.

“To see people hurt, people who were just innocent and the senseless destruction by whoever has caused this.

“Whoever has done this is a horrible, horrible person… it is just a vicious thing to do.”

Reports have differed on the number of people injured as a result of the incident, with some news outlets reporting 30 and others reporting 10-12.

ORIGINAL 12.03 pm (June 8) – The driver of a silver Renault has killed at least one person and injured around 30 people after driving the car into a crowd of people at the intersection of Rankestrasse and Tauentzienstrasse, in the western part of Berlin.

According to the police, the accident happened around 10.30 am near the Memorial Church and the Ku’damm when the driver drove onto a pedestrian area near Rankestraße before driving back onto the road on Tauentzienstraße and then back onto a path at Marburger Straße where the car crashed into a shop window.

The police spokesman, Thilo Cablitz, said: “We do not know at this point in time whether it was an intentional act or a traffic accident.”

“We have arrested the driver and are looking to clarify the facts [regarding the incident].”

Scottish-American actor John Barrowman, best known for his role as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and Torchwood, was at the scene at the time of the incident.

In his first tweet about the event, the 55-year-old wrote: “We think we have witnessed a terrorist attack here in Berlin.

“We’re not sure, there’s a lot of people’s dead bodies all over the place.

“We’ve seen a car that came down the road and ended up in a storefront covering three city blocks.

“It’s pretty horrific.”

We think we have witnessed a terrorist attack here in Berlin we’re not sure there’s a lot of people dead bodies all over the place we’ve seen a car that came down the road and ended up in a storefront covering three city blocks it’s pretty horrific. #berlin pic.twitter.com/Xp1bkZBGt0

— John Barrowman MBE (@JohnBarrowman) June 8, 2022

In a later video update, Barrowman said: “Its pretty bad. There’s dead bodies in the middle of the road. There are a lot of people walking with limps and injuries. The police presence is unbelievable.

“I heard the bang and the crash. We came out and saw the carnage.”

The actor is believed to have been staying in a hotel near the crash site.

The incident sparked a huge emergency service response with fire brigade crews and police dispatched to the scene. A rescue helicopter landed on the median of Tauentzienstraße, which was captured by Mr Barrowman.

Some more footage from the scene. Jb pic.twitter.com/XTYDJkeaP8

— John Barrowman MBE (@JohnBarrowman) June 8, 2022

Sadly, this is not the first incident of a driver crashing into pedestrians in Germany. In recent years, multiple incidents have been reported.

In 2016, one of the largest High Streets in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district was the scene of the horrific Christmas market attack which saw 11 people killed.

The incident today, Wednesday, June 8, in Rankestraße, is near the main shopping district of Breitscheidplatz in which the 2016 attack occurred.

On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, a 51-year-old drunk driver drove his Range Rover into a crowd of screaming Christmas shoppers, in the town of Trier, Germany, killing a father and his baby daughter, a teacher, and two other people.

On April 7, 2018, a man drove his vehicle into pedestrians in the German town of Munster, killing at least two people before he shot himself.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.