Berlin terror attack: Series of motorway crashes being treated as Islamic extremist attack, prosecutors say

A series of "deliberate" crashes on a Berlin highway are being treated as an Islamic extremist attack, German prosecutors have said.

The crashes in three different locations shortly before 7pm on Tuesday were allegedly caused intentionally by a 30-year-old man.

"According to the current state of our investigation we assume this was an Islamist-motivated attack," Berlin's senator for the interior, Andreas Geisel, said.

"A religiously motivated background cannot be excluded."

Six people were injured, three of them seriously, when the man allegedly drove into several vehicles, intentionally hitting motorcycles, along a stretch of the German capital’s highway.

One of the people injured in the attack is in a life-threatening condition, German news agency dpa reported.

Local media reported that the man later stopped on the road and put a box on the roof of his car, claiming it had explosives inside, but specialists opened the box and found only tools.

It was also reported that the man shouted "allahu akbar" or "God is great" as he got out of his car.

The Bild daily reported that he also shouted: "Nobody gets closer, or you will all die."

The suspect then rolled out a prayer carpet and started praying, daily paper Tagesspiegel reported.

A police officer of Arabic immigrant background then approached the man, talked to him in Arabic, pulled him away from the car and detained him, the paper reported.

According to Tagesspiegel, the man is known to Berlin police.

The man is being investigated for three cases of attempted murder, prosecutors said, adding that there were indications that the suspect had psychological problems.

"The fact that the suspect was possibly suffering from psychological problems does not make this issue any easier," Mr Geisel said.

"If personal problems mix with religiously loaded ideas, this can lead to uncontrollable acts - yesterday's events have shown in a very painful way how vulnerable our society is."

Police and prosecutors said they were investigating if the suspect was linked to any terrorist group, but had not found any indications of that yet.

The road was closed following the crashes and some 300 people were stuck for hours and received support from the German Red Cross, the Berlin fire department said on Tuesday night.