1 dead, 8 injured after driver collided with pedestrians in Berlin

Rescue services said a man drove a car into pedestrians in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring at least eight others.

Police spokesman Tilo Kaplitz said the man hit people on a street corner at about 10:30 a.m. before putting the car back on the road and then crashing into a shop window around another building.

Fire service spokesman Stefan Salzwedel put the number of injured at eight. Police said more than a dozen were injured. Police said several of them are in serious condition.

Kaplitz said the driver was apparently arrested by bystanders before being quickly arrested by a police officer who was near the scene. He said police are trying to determine whether he deliberately hit pedestrians or whether it was an accident, possibly due to a medical emergency.

He said he had no additional information about the man, who was driving a van, or whether he had told the police anything yet.

Large numbers of rescue vehicles and first responders were on site.

The incident took place at one end of the Kurfuerstendamm shopping street and next to Breitscheidplatz, where an extremist carried out a car attack on a Christmas market in 2016.resulting in 13 deaths.

In a 2019 accident in central Berlin, an SUV drove into a group of pedestrians, killing four people. The driver had an epileptic fit And swerved on the sidewalk.