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LAST UPDATE | 19 Aug 2020
AN IRAQI-BORN man deliberately drove his car into motorcycles along a stretch of Berlin motorway, leaving at least one person in a life-threatening condition in what German officials said was a terror attack.
“According to the current state of our investigation, we assume this was an Islamist-motivated attack,” Berlin’s senator for the interior Andreas Geisel said.
“A religiously motivated background cannot be excluded.”
Six people were injured, three of them severely, when the 30-year-old man allegedly drove into several vehicles and intentionally hit into motorcycles yesterday evening, Berlin prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.
The crashes at three different locations happened during rush hour shortly before 7pm local time and led to a complete closure of one of the main traffic arteries of Berlin.
Investigators did not reveal the man’s identity, as is customary in Germany, but local media identified the suspect as Sarmad D.
He is being investigated for three cases of attempted murder.
“The fact that the suspect was possibly suffering from psychological problems does not make this issue any easier,” Geisel said.
“If personal problems mix with religiously loaded ideas, this can lead to uncontrollable acts – yesterday’s events have shown in a very painful way how vulnerable our society is.”
Police and prosecutors said they were investigating if the suspect was linked to any terrorist group but had not found any indications of that yet.
The suspect, who was driving a black Opel Astra, stopped on the motorway after the third crash and put an old ammunition box on the roof of his car, claiming it had explosives inside, the statement said.
Several media reported that the man shouted “allahu akbar” or “God is great” as he got out of his car.
The Bild daily reported that he also shouted: “Nobody gets closer, or you will all die.”
The suspect then rolled out a prayer carpet and started praying, daily paper Tagesspiegel reported.
A police officer of Arabic immigrant background then approached the man, talked to him in Arabic, pulled him away from the car and detained him, the paper reported.
According to Tagesspiegel, the man is known to Berlin police.
He was born in Baghdad in 1990 and lived in a refugee home in Berlin.
In 2018, he was detained for injuring others and taken to a mental institution for a short time, Tagesspiegel reported.
Dpa reported that the suspect allegedly made references to his plans on Facebook before the attack.
He posted photos of the car that he later used in the attack, as well as religious writings, it said.
After the man was detained, hundreds of people stuck on the motorway nearby were led away from their cars.
Specialists opened the box with a strong jet of water but found only tools inside.
Among the three severely injured people, one is in a life-threatening condition, dpa reported.
One of the three was a firefighter going home from work, Geisel said.
It was not clear if he was the one who is in a life-threatening condition.
“If a car intentionally targets motorcycles, they don’t have a chance,” Geisel said.
The incident led to long traffic jams.
The people who were led away from the site where the suspect was detained and others who were stuck on the motorway for hours were getting support from the German Red Cross, the Berlin fire department said.
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I was very impressed, Well done to all concerned.
@David Huston: Well that was the objective i’m sure.
@David Huston: I only saw it on TV3 channels.
The private sector did not know if they would get paid or not if they didn’t risk their lives travelling to work on Monday including building sites even in the worst affected areas.
@Jay Lane: Government should have ordered all businesses to close.
@Eamonn Sheen: they don’t have the power to do that
@Hurt Stoogie: They have the power to ban any employers from punishing an employee for not going out in a red warning.
@Hurt Stoogie: Gardaí where I live visited all local businesses and made them close
@Sandra Turner: What businesses they close & what power would they had to make them close?
@Sandra Turner: Bullshit. Gardai have no such powers.
@Cian O Donoghue: even if they don’t have official power I’d be shocked if any reputable business stayed open after a Garda visit advising not to open for safety of staff and customers
@the phantom: how many gardai would it take to get that done????
@Cian O Donoghue: doesn’t public safety have precedence?
@Jay Lane: my sister works for the private sector and got a text message not to come into work. I work for the public sector and I got no such message and went into work.
The national emergency may not have materialised nation wide on this occasion but the procedures put in place worked well and a bualadh bos is deserved for all concerned…let’s hope the expertise is in place for more serious incidents such as another nuclear disaster at windscale or a flu/disease pandemic.
@winston smith: This is the first i’m finding out about this service.. i don’t have tv and don’t listen to radio, so this emergency broadcast is useless in reaching me. in fact, only for my mother going onto facebook to check in with my workplace, i would have been out at the peak of the storm!
warnings like this need to be far more generalised – as others have said, take mobile phone operators into account as well.. THAT would reach me.
at 30, i don’t bother with tv, radio, or social media usage…my old facebook account is basically for stuff that forces a sign-in. if i didn’t need it for things like the journal, i would get rid (and nope, i don’t have twitter, or whatsapp, or instagram, or whatever else is popular currently).
i get my news from newspapers and the journal. (not a technophobe, just not into social media, etc)
@Mirabelle Stonegate: in fairness, I’d say you’re very much in the minority as a person who doesn’t watch TV or listen to radio. Also you use the journal which had plenty of warnings.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: so.the numerous articles the journal.had warning us and telling us of the red alert was lost on you because tou don’t watch tv or listen to the radio…..
@Mirabelle Stonegate: ya, good man, you’re 30 and mammy is checking to see if you have school in the morning.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: do you realize how dumb you sound. When a Hurricane is approaching you should be looking for news and updates yourself. Depending on your Mother at age 30 is pathetic. I hope she is not depending on you.
@Aine O Connor: I didnt ask her to do that, she did it herself and then rang me.
I was keeping an eye on the journal and the like, but im in a very new job, and still on probation. Im used to working for a company that doesnt care two whits about its employees, so i was of the mind that i needed to get to work no matter what, to ensure i kept my job. I was genuinely shocked that, not only did my new employer close for the day, but that they are still paying us.
A friend at my old company got stuck in england because of the storm and didnt get home until tuesday. They have issued him with a written warning, even though this is the first time he has ever had to call off work in 5 years. The same company gave me a stern talking to for missing a week and a half of work due to a broken wrist. My doctor recommended i be off for 4-6 weeks, but i was told that they couldnt guarantee i would have a job if i stayed off that long. This sort of employer is why i would have been out in the peak of the storm had my mother not thought to check social media.
Unless i were to move home to my parents, i have absolutely no way of getting tv channels in my house. Ive also never really cared for radio, i hated trying to tune as a kid, and now with internet based streaming, it never works right for me.
And im not just talking about for somethinglike a storm that this should be generalised. I check the news when i wak up, and again when i go to bed. If i think of it, i check during the day.
Or what about people who are out of the country? My parents were away earlier in the year, and knew nothing about a couple of the terror attacks that happened at that time, as they make a point not to watch the news whilst on holiday. I know other people who are the same, andignore the news whilst abroad. A text-based system would reach those people.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: so you don’t watch or listen to anything broadcast but you’re upset if you don’t get a broadcast warning?
@Mirabelle Stonegate:
I have a 30 year old daughter and she was constantly in touch with me as I live alone to check that I was ok. Do you get my drift.
These red alerts should come up every time Michael Martin is on TV
@Shaun Gallagher: crazy comment but I do agree. Nothing politician.
@Shaun Gallagher: who is Micheal Martin?
Hmm didn’t see the warning but rarely watch Irish channels.
This should be done on the mobile networks. Regionally or national. The mechanism is already in place with all operators but not licensed. Whilst the alert on tv screens was better than nothing, its from an era when we were all watching Glenroe on sunday eve.
@Colum Cusack: we’ll all the news apps I have sent push notifications.
@Deborah Behan: *well stupid autocorrect
It should use the mobile messaging network to notify all mobile users. It’s a bit old school to broadcast a message on TV. What percentage of the population will be watching TV if there’s a national emergency at 10am?
There was nothing on Netflix
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: Same here – I guess the national emergency is only for those who decide to pay €180 a year.
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: There never is anything on Netflix
@Malachi: you do need to connect to the internet first but I would admit it will probably not work on your 14.4 modem.
What if the lecky is the first thing to go??
@Tony Murphy: On Sunday night? I suppose they’d continue to broadcast to areas with electricity. You can get radios with batteries in Euro shops now.
Should probably show it on stations people actually watch. Rte could show a flash message of “get free money” and nobody would see it. Close them down. Waste of money!
I have a strong feeling that July 2018 will be a busy month in Ireland’s maternity hospitals.
@Mickelodian Ranks: All with the middle name of Ophelia?
So that’s what we pay the tv license for?! :P
Yeah.. there was no proper warnings for the deaf community! I had to rely on online written news instead of the tv! No subtitles, no ISL… ireland is so backwards when it comes to providing proper services for deaf people
@Ruth McCann: To be fair, journal, FB, Twitter, emergency texts all served both deaf and non deaf people equally.
@Ruth McCann: what’s wrong with the signing
at 6 o’clock news
With almost everyone in the country having a mobile device would it not make sense to also send a message to all mobile devices?
Someone removed the ! From the rte notice just after..
I lived in Florida for 20 years. Seen plenty of hurricanes. I would give the emergency centre a “B” grade. More definitive instructions on what workers should do regarding a Red warning could have been given. This would apply especially for government employees, such as HSE and other critical services. A continuous crawl on all TV channels would have been helpful, too many surfers changing channels to ensure they read a momentary bulletin. Lastly, the EBS must include cable providers. Let’s face it, with hundreds of channels on offer not everyone is tuned into RTE in spite of what RTE might believe.
Was the man crying into his cup of tea part of the message
@Brian Harney: Seems an odd choice of screensaver all right. Is his name Hamlet?
WOW, they actually think people still watch this stuff? Put it on netflix etc. and people might actually have seen it.
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