Berlin: Auto rast in Passanten – SEK-Einsatz in der Wohnung des Amok-Fahrers
Berlin - It is a sunny morning on Berlin's Ku'damm when the roar of an engine drowns out the summer bustle at 10:26 am.
Barely a minute later, a woman is dead, nine people are lying on the asphalt gravely injured, and many more are lightly injured. A 200-metre long path of destruction stretches across the boulevard, at the end of which a small car is stuck in the shop window of a perfumery.
Gor H. (29) is the name of the man who steered the Renault Clio off the road and onto the pavement at high speed near the Gedächtniskirche. Tourists are strolling there, including the 10th grade of the Kaulbach School from Bad Arolsen (Hesse) with 24 children and two teachers on a graduation trip.
The car rams into the teacher (51), killing her instantly. "I tried to resuscitate the person," says a workman. "She unfortunately died." The second teacher and fourteen students are injured.
The spree driver wrenches the wheel of the Renault around, drives back onto the road. "There were two people on the bonnet," a shocked eyewitness tells BILD. "The car was doing 60 to 80 km/h!"
At the next street corner, Gor H. speeds onto the pavement again, mowing down two passers-by, café tables and flower tubs before crashing into the shop window of a perfumery. The German-Armenian gets out, is apparently unhurt, and wants to run away. Witnesses hold him until the police arrive. The rampage driver is arrested.
While first responders fight for the lives of the critically injured, Gor H. is taken away. "Please help, please help," he stammers. A passer-by calls out to him: "Why do you want help? You almost killed two people just now!"
Dozens of ambulances race to the scene, 130 police officers secure the scene. A rescue helicopter lands on Tauentzien. A pregnant woman has suffered a broken hip, a man an open fracture of the thigh. A girl (16) is taken to hospital with craniocerebral trauma.
Six victims' lives are still in danger in the evening.
While witnesses and relatives are cared for by chaplains in the nearby Gedächtniskirche, the police take the rampage driver to the police station at Bahnhof Zoo, where his personal details and fingerprints are checked. His fleshy hands are tied behind his back. "Ouch! Ouch!" he whimpers.
Gor H. lives not far from the crime scene, the Renault is registered to his sister. He is said to have a criminal record for theft, he was not known as an extremist before. In the evening, the SEK stormed his flat. According to BILD information, posters and documents referring to Turkey were found in the vehicle, possibly indicating a political motivation.
As reported by ZDF, the posters are said to be directed against Turkey. According to the report, they read: "Stop Turkey's aggression!"
Berlin's mayor Franziska Giffey (44) told "heute journal up:date": "These two posters were found on the back seat, but it has not yet been clarified whether this is connected to the crime, who they belong to and whether there is a political statement behind them."
"This was definitely not an accident," an investigator told BILD. "This was a spree killer. A stone-cold killer."
Interior Senator Iris Spranger:
"According to the latest information, what happened today on Tauentzienstrasse turns out to be an amok attack by a mentally disturbed person."
BBM
