Was a March 26, 2025, car crash in Berlin a premeditated act of terrorism? No, that's not true: The German police told Lead Stories that, as of this writing, there is no evidence to support that theory. The incident involved a teenager who, when stopped by police, attempted to drive away, injuring eight people.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on March 26, 2025. It opened:
🚨BREAKING: Several injured in Berlin after a man rams car into a large group of people on the sidewalk.
Germany is not okay.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Mar 27 13:31:00 2025 UTC)
The post implied that the driver intentionally targeted a crowd, committing a premeditated act. The same grainy clip showing a row of emergency vehicles at night was shared with captions explicitly describing the event as a "mass murder" (archived here) or a "possible terrorist attack" (archived here).
On March 26, 2025, the claim started to spread after a traffic accident in the Gesundbrunnen district of Berlin in Germany.
On March 27, 2025, Berlin police (Polizei Berlin) told Lead Stories via email:
According to the information available to date, the case you mentioned involved a traffic accident after a young driver attempted to evade a police check and lost control of his vehicle. There is no evidence to suggest a terrorist attack.
The title of the initial report the police published post on X (archived here) said, as translated by Chrome from German:
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT
The law enforcement public statement went on to explain the details. According to the police account, the driver, who was 17 years old, tried to reverse, "hit several people and crashed into a house wall." It continued:
The 17-year-old suspect does not have a valid driver's license. He is being investigated for several traffic offenses and grievous bodily harm.
The police press release (archived here) published the next day repeated the same sequence of events, offering more details about the injuries sustained by one officer and at least four passersby.
The British tabloid Mirror reported (archived here) that the fire department described the event as a "mass casualty incident". In reality, the fire department's press release (archived here) issued on the day of the crash added more context to that. As translated by Chrome, it reads:
Due to the reporting pattern, the Berlin Fire Department's control center added the module 'mass casualty incident' to the actual alarm keyword in order to have sufficient rescue resources available.
In the 'Medical Rescue' section of the operation, eight people were examined by emergency medical personnel. This resulted in one person with life-threatening injuries, five with minor injuries, and two requiring medical attention. Four people were transported to the hospital. All rescue measures were coordinated by a senior emergency physician and an organizational head of the rescue service.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning Europe are here.
