Iraqi-born man arrested over ‘Islamist’ Berlin attack

At least three people have been injured severely after being hit by a car on German motorway in possible terror incident

A police officer investigates the scene of a series of allegedly deliberate car crashes on A100 motorway in Berlin, Germany. Reuters

An Iraqi-born man injured six people, three severely, when he deliberately drove his car into a group of motorcyclists in Berlin in an alleged attack that officials say could be religiously inspired terrorism.

On Tuesday evening the 30-year-old, named locally as Samrad D, crashed at three different locations on a Berlin motorway leaving at least one person with life-threatening injuries. He has been arrested on attempted murder charges.

Berlin’s state minister for interior, Andreas Geisel, said it appeared the man had mental health issues.

“According to the current state of our investigation we assume this was an Islamist-motivated attack,” Mr Geisel said. “A religiously motivated background cannot be excluded.

“The fact that the suspect was possibly suffering from psychological problems does not make this issue any easier,” Mr 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 whether the alleged attacker was linked to any terrorist group but had not found any indications of that yet. They added that comments he made after being arrested suggested there was religious motivation.

The man was detained at the scene after a device in his car, which he said was dangerous, turned out to be a toolbox.