Big shock in Poland

Car drives into crowd of people: 17 injured

The emergency services do their utmost.(Bild: APA/AFP/-STR)

A car driver has driven into a crowd of people in Szczecin, Poland, injuring at least 19 passers-by. Six of the injured were children, explained provincial governor Adam Rudawski on Friday, and two of the injured were in a critical condition.

Initially, there had been talk of 17 injured. The police ruled out a terrorist background.

According to Governor Rudawski, the driver initially fled the scene after the incident, but was arrested shortly afterwards. "This is not an act of terrorism," said police spokesman Pawel Pankau. The arrested driver was a 33-year-old Polish man living in Szczecin. During his escape, the man rammed into three cars, the drivers of which were injured.

The wrecked cars after the collision(Bild: APA/AFP/-STR)

Not under the influence of alcohol or drugs
According to the police spokesman, the man "at the wheel of a Ford Focus drove into a group of people waiting for the streetcar at a major intersection in the center of Szczecin". Initial analyses indicated "that he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs", explained Pankau.

Polish media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the driver drove into the intersection at high speed and then raced onto the sidewalk and the streetcar tracks. He then fled across the intersection in his car and collided with three cars about a kilometer away.