This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A German man has crashed his car into a department store in Hamburg after reportedly mistaking his accelerator for the brake.

Pictures from the scene showed people comforting the reportedly 85-year-old man as he sat in the handbag department of the Galeria Kaufhof chain in Hamburg’s largest shopping centre, looking bewildered and pointing at the chaos and destruction around him.

He was said to have suffered only superficial injuries and was taken to hospital, where he and two women were said to be being treated for shock and light cuts.

andrei marian mihai (@andreimarianmih) 🇩🇪🚨Alertă in Germania: O mașină a intrat într-un Centru Comercial din Hamburg … https://t.co/J7ckjdbY1h pic.twitter.com/qFPwaHzVvR

The man is believed to have lost control of his silver Mercedes SUV on a rooftop car park at about 10.35am local time (0835 GMT). It sped past shocked shoppers and up a flight of stairs through a glass door into the front of the shop.

The car smashed through an escalator landing and came to a stop with its front wheels hanging precariously over the edge of the shop floor above the main atrium, its lights flashing. The floor was strewn with handbags and broken glass and metal.

A witness told the tabloid Bild: “The man simply bombed through the department store in his car without stopping.”

Another witness told the newspaper: “A woman who was shopping at that moment ran outside and screamed: ‘Get out, get out, get out, who knows what else is going to happen.’”

The department store was immediately evacuated. Initial reports suggested the incident might have been a terror attack.