Child badly injured as ‘crazed’ man crashes into crowd

A GERMAN motorist drove a car into a barrier blocking off Berlin’s Fan Mile — the main World Cup public viewing area in the capital — yesterday, injuring 21 people, including one child.

The child was seriously injured and was among 10 people taken to Berlin hospitals for treatment, while 11 others were treated at the scene by emergency services for lighter injuries, said Ehrhart Koerting, Berlin’s top security official.

Mr Koerting said police believed the driver intentionally broke through the barrier near the landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Koerting said authorities had not yet determined a motive for the incident, adding it appeared to be a stunt by a “crazed man” seeking attention.

“It was not an attack,” said Mr Koerting.

The 33-year-old man, whose identity was not released, and a 55-year-old woman who was a passenger in the car remained in police detention and were being questioned by prosecutors, he said.

Mr Koerting said police searched the vehicle for explosives because the man, a German citizen of Indian descent, said “kaboom” as he was being led away.

But Berlin state official Michael Donnermeyer said a thorough search of the vehicle had turned up no explosives and a concert scheduled for later in the night was to go ahead as planned.

“We were very lucky,” Mr Donnermeyer said.

The car went through a barrier blocking off the stretch of main road where World Cup games are shown on big screens to hundreds of thousands of fans and drove right up to the area’s main stage, directly before Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate, before it was stopped.

Thorsten Mayer said he was walking with his girlfriend when the car went through the barrier.

“I would say it was going 25 to 30 miles per hour,” Mr Mayer said.

“I would say that it was deliberate,” he added.

Few people were on the Fan Mile because there were no matches.

During the games, as many as 700,000 people have packed the mile-long area stretching from the Brandenburg Gate through the Tiergarten park.

Berlin authorities announced on Saturday that they planned to extend the area for tomorrow’s upcoming semi-final match when Germany plays Italy, adding space to accommodate an additional 200,000 fans.