A man has died after a bomb exploded “on or inside” the car he was driving in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin this morning, police have confirmed.
The Volkswagen Passat exploded at around 8.00 a.m. on Bismarkstrasse, near the Deutsche Oper subway station, during the morning rush hour.
Eyewitnesses said the driver managed to escape from the car but collapsed due to his injuries, Tagesspiegel reports. Emergency services tried to resuscitate him, but at 8.40 a.m. he was declared dead. No one else was injured in the incident.
Police said there was “no indication” the explosion was a terrorist incident. Berlin state interior minister Frank Henkel said the investigation is focusing on connections to organized crime.
Berlin prosecutor Martin Steltner said the dead man is a 43-year-old Turkish citizen. He was linked to crimes involving drugs, counterfeit money and illegal gambling until 2008, but has not come to the attention of police since.
It is not known whether the dead man was the intended target of the bomb.
Auto-Explosion in Berlin – 1 Mensch tot – Mordkommission ermittelt – Polizei geht von Sprengsatz aus pic.twitter.com/HRzv8kVMTn
— tagesschau (@tagesschau) March 15, 2016
Es gibt derzeit keine Hinweise auf terroristischen Hintergrund der Tat.
^yt— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) March 15, 2016
#Berlin state interior minister Frank Henkel confirms organized crime behind car bomb blast. pic.twitter.com/MM1S3QWmQ6
— Cormac Walsh (@CormacWalsh) March 15, 2016
The scene at the site of the car bomb blast in #Berlin pic.twitter.com/SqX9BF7kz1
— Cormac Walsh (@CormacWalsh) March 15, 2016
Gemäß unserer Kolleg. vort Ort, ist der PKW während der Fahrt explodiert und hat sich dann überschlagen.
^yt pic.twitter.com/Ae1K6OvkdG— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) March 15, 2016
Image: @polizeiberlin/Twitter
