Six people have been injured, three of them severely, after a suspected Islamist terror attack on a motorway in Berlin overnight.
A 30-year-old Iraqi man driving a black Opel Astra is thought to have deliberately crashed into several motorbikes and scooters while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ around 6.30pm on Tuesday.
He then got out of the car and placed a box on the roof, claiming it was a bomb and that he would detonate it if anyone approached, investigators told German media.
Six people have been injured, three of them seriously, after a car crashed into multiple motorbike and scooter riders around Berlin on Tuesday evening (scene of final crash)
The driver, a 30-year-old Iraqi man (pictured), allegedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he ploughed into the other motorists, before claiming to have a bomb on the roof of his car
Prosecutors say the man appeared to have ‘Islamist motivations’ and investigators are treating the crashes as deliberate
Police examine the scene of the final crash in the south west of Berlin on Wednesday morning
‘Nobody come any closer or you will all die,’ the man shouted, according to witnesses who spoke to the Bild newspaper.
Armed police rushed to the scene and eventually overpowered the man and opened the box, which was found to contain tools.
The man has since been arrested and police are working on the assumption that the accidents were caused deliberately.
The man appears to have had an ‘Islamist motivation according to our current knowledge’, prosecutors said.
Police have yet to officially confirm the reports, but a preliminary report is due to be completed on Wednesday afternoon.
All of the crashes happened in the south west of the city, where motorways were still closed on Wednesday morning.
One motorcyclist was run over at Detmolder Strasse, at a junction with the A100 motorway, according to Bild.
At least three crash scenes have been identified along a three-mile stretch of motorway located in the south west of Berlin
Large sections of motorway remained closed on Wednesday morning as police continued to investigate the crash sites – including with drones (pictured)
300 people were left stranded in their cars overnight after police closed the highways, and had to be supported by the Red Cross
A scooter driver was then hit at Innsbrucker Platz, around a mile along the same motorway, and had to be revived by paramedics.
Two more motorbike riders were then struck at Alboinstrasse, another a mile along the same motorway.
The car used in the attacks was then pictured with a motorbike pinned under the front bumper at Alboinstrasse.
The incident led to long traffic jams Tuesday evening.
Some 300 people were stuck on the highway for hours and were getting support from the German Red Cross, the Berlin fire department tweeted Tuesday night.
Forensic investigators take pictures of evidence at one of three crash sites on the A100 motorway, to the south of Berlin
Motorists wait outside their cars after police shut motorways south of Berlin following the crashes on Tuesday evening
People with ties to Islamic extremism have committed several violent attacks in Germany in recent years.
The worst was a ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12. The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, was a supporter of ISIS.
More recently, an Islamist and his wife were convicted of planning a biological bomb attack in Germany in 2018 with the deadly poison ricin.
The pair had ordered castor seeds, explosives and metal ball bearings on the internet to build the toxic bomb.
The man was in March sentenced to 10 years in prison while his wife received an eight-year sentence in June.
Since 2013, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in Germany has increased fivefold to 680, according to security services.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has often been accused, particularly by the far right, of having contributed to the Islamist threat by opening the country’s borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants in 2015.