German authorities are investigating a man who drove a stolen lorry into a line of cars in Limburg in the western state of Hesse, injuring eight people.
The 32-year-old had pulled the driver of the vehicle from his cabin at a red light before using the lorry to plough into eight cars waiting at a light near the town’s central railway station at about 5.20pm (1620 BST) on Monday.
The man, a Syrian national named as Omar AI by the national broadcaster ARD, was arrested at the scene.
A number of German media outlets, citing security sources, reported that authorities believed the incident to have a terrorist background. However, a spokesperson for the general public prosecutor in Frankfurt said they could not confirm a terrorist motive and were still investigating the case.
According to the news agency dpa, the suspect has lived in Germany since 2015 and was known to the police for a number of minor criminal offences including possession of drugs and theft.
However, he had no known links to Islamist extremist circles.
Marius Hahn, the mayor of Limburg, said he was shocked by the incident. “My thoughts are with the injured victims of the accident and their families,” he said.
Btw I started locking my driver’s door too when inside the truck about a month ago. Can’t be too careful these days
BBC reports are now stating that he is actually an off duty doctor who had requisitioned the truck to take an emergency patient to hospital.But was criminally obstructed by 8 far right extremists but heroically tried to get through regardless.
whiplash:
Even radical terrorists have standards!Who`d want to be seen driving my CF?
Hey hey hey! Let’s not jump to conclusions here. What if becoming a truck driver was his life long dream but no company would give him a chance as he had no experience so he decided to borrow the truck to impress prospective employers however those pesky, good for nothing car drivers - 8 of them to be precise, decided to ruin his day and break check him at the traffic lights. He then failed to explain his real intentions to the police because Germans don’t speak Arabic very well yet.
whiplash:
Even radical terrorists have standards!Who`d want to be seen driving my CF?
Hey hey hey! Let’s not jump to conclusions here. What if becoming a truck driver was his life long dream but no company would give him a chance as he had no experience so he decided to borrow the truck to impress prospective employers however those pesky, good for nothing car drivers - 8 of them to be precise, decided to ruin his day and break check him at the traffic lights. He then failed to explain his real intentions to the police because Germans don’t speak Arabic very well yet.
The new first language will be arabic from now on, but you can take clandestine German lessons if you’re game.
