Berlin Autobahn Crashes Are Deemed a Possible Terrorist Attack

Torri Donley

BERLIN — A day after a bizarre series of crashes on a Berlin autobahn left several people injured, the city’s public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday that it was investigating whether what happened was part of an Islamist terrorist attack. A 30-year-old man in a car was “strongly suspected” of […]

BERLIN — A day after a bizarre series of crashes on a Berlin autobahn left several people injured, the city’s public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday that it was investigating whether what happened was part of an Islamist terrorist attack.

A 30-year-old man in a car was “strongly suspected” of “having hunted down motorcyclists,” Martin Steltner, the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said at a news conference.

The driver, who the authorities said was an Iraqi citizen born in Baghdad, appeared to cause three separate crashes by ramming his car into two motorcycles and one scooter on different sections of the A100, an autobahn that runs through Berlin, during the Tuesday evening rush hour. He later yelled “God is great” in Arabic and threatened to detonate a bomb.

Berlin has endured an Islamist vehicle attack before: In 2016, an assailant plowed a stolen truck through a popular Christmas market in the city, leaving 12 people dead. Earlier this year a Tunisian man was convicted of planning an attack using ricin, a lethal toxin, and given a 10-year jail sentence. After a tip, the police arrested the man in 2018. But in recent years, most terrorist attacks in Germany — including one in the west of the country that left 10 people dead six months ago — have been carried out by right-wing extremists.

After opening the box, the police found it contained only tools, and the autobahn was largely reopened.

The prosector’s office is still determining charges, but Mr. Steltner said the suspected assailant would face at least three counts of attempted murder. As is routine in Germany at this stage in proceedings, the suspect’s name has not been publicly confirmed.

A judge is expected to rule on Wednesday whether the man should stay in custody or be taken to a mental-health facility.

Source Article

Next Post

This South Jersey diner server got an unexpected tip from her customers: a car

Lisa Mollet has received generous tips in her 15-plus years as a restaurant server, but never one of the four-wheel variety. © HEATHER KHALIFA/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS Lisa Mollet, a waitress at Empire Diner, drive the car that a couple who she has waited on gave her on Friday, Aug. 21, […]