BERLIN, June 9. (DPA/EP) –
The person responsible for the multiple outrage recorded on Wednesday near a church in Berlin, an event that left one dead and fourteen injured, acted intentionally, as indicated on Thursday by the mayor of the German capital, Franziska Giffey.
The man ran over a group of students with their teacher, who were on a visit to the city from a town in the state of Hesse, before returning to the street and crashing into a shop window. The fatal victim is the teacher, who at the moment has not been identified.
Giffey has stated in statements to the RBB public television channel that the police investigation reveals that it is “an act of a person with serious mental problems” and has added that the investigators are still trying to clarify the “confusing statements” with the help of an interpreter.
Likewise, Giffey has pointed out that it is “a dark day in the history of Berlin”, as the German news agency DPA has collected. At the moment, the authorities have not pointed to the possible reasons for the event.
Investigators have yet to determine whether posters with references to Turkey found in the vehicle offer any clues to the motives of the man, who is of Armenian descent and has German nationality. Within the framework of the investigations, they have located inside the vehicle a letter from the driver in which he anticipated his action.
For his part, the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, has been “deeply affected” by the multiple outrage around the Kaiser Wilhelm church. “I am deeply saddened by the horrible crime on Kurfürstendamm,” he said, referring to the avenue where the outrage took place.
The place was the scene of the attack perpetrated in 2016 against a Berlin Christmas market, an event that resulted in twelve fatalities. Anis Amri, a Tunisian citizen who had claimed asylum in the country, rammed a truck into the square in front of this church, near the main shopping street in the west of the German capital.
