Teacher killed and 14 students injured as car ploughs into crowd

A teacher has died and 14 of her students injured after a man drove his vehicle into a crowd of people at a popular shopping district in Berlin.

A 29-year-old German-Armenian man veered his car onto the pavement where pedestrians were walking at around 10.30am (local time).

He then got the vehicle back onto the road and crashed through a shop window several streets away, the Associated Press reported.

Bystanders detained him until authorities arrived on the scene.

Several people were injured, with six in a life-threatening condition, and another three seriously injured.

The teacher who was with a high school class died instantly, authorities said.

She and her students were visiting Germany's capital and 14 of her students were injured.

According to Reuters, the students would have been aged between 16 and 17-years-old.

Bad Arolsen Mayor Marko Lambion said at the time of the incident, a bus was en route to pick up the students and he said authorities were doing everything they can to bring the students home, the BBC reported.

Police deny reports of confession letter

Earlier there were reports originating from Germany's Bild newspaper that the 29-year-old driver had left behind a letter of confession in the car.

Those reports have since been denied by the police, however investigators did say posters about Turkey, which has troubled relations with Armenia, had been found.

"We haven't clarified everything yet," Berlin's mayor Franziska Giffey told reporters at the scene.

An Interior Ministry spokesperson also said it was "too early to speculate" about the cause of the incident.

An investigation is underway to determine whether the incident was deliberate or possibly an accident with a medical cause.

The driver did receive medical treatment at the scene, a police spokesperson said.

After the incident more than 100 emergency workers were on sight.

The man's small silver Renault was seen lodged in the shop window after it smashed through a plate glass display.

Among those who witnessed the "carnage" after the incident was actor John Barrowman.

In a video shared to his Twitter account he said he heard a bang and a crash when he was in a store, but it wasn't until he went outside that he saw the devastating scene.

The incident took place near the scene of an attack on December 19, 2016, when Anis Amri, a Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, ploughed a truck into a crowded western Berlin Christmas market.

In the attack, 13 people died and more than 50 were injured.

A police spokesperson said that police had learned from the experience in 2016 in dealing with Wednesday's incident.

"The wounds of 2016 are not healed, everyone remembers it," police spokesman Thilo Cablitz said.

With Reuters and Associated Press

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