Berlin crash driver had history of paranoid schizophrenia, authorities say

Flowers near the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in Berlin, Germany, close to where a teacher died and 14 pupils on a school trip were injured. Photograph: Michael Sohn/AP

A 29-year-old man who killed a teacher and injured 14 children after driving his car into a crowd in Berlin on Wednesday had a history of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was probably intending to kill or injure, German authorities say.

“There are no clues pointing to a terrorist motivation behind this deed, and we can also rule out that it was an accident”, said the spokesperson for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, Sebastian Büchner. “It was probably a deliberate act.”