dpa
Cologne
A taxi driver in Cologne is alleged to have targetted unsuspecting female pedestrians as he drove at speed and struck them, leaving five women and one man injured, officials said on Tuesday.
The 44-year-old from Velbert, some 60km north of Cologne, drove his car at high speed towards women in Cologne’s old town. Two sustained serious injuries and two had minor injuries, according to the police and public prosecutor’s office.
Prior to the Cologne incident, the apparently same taxi drove into a 50-year-old woman in Essen, causing life-threatening injuries.
Investigators cautioned it is still not entirely certain if the same driver was behind the attacks in the two nearby cities.
A waiter at a brewery who witnessed the incident in Cologne took off on foot in pursuit. The taxi driver then drove toward him as well.
Although the waiter, 34, jumped aside, he was clipped by the taxi’s side mirror and sustained minor injuries. Even though injured, the Good Samaritan managed to overpower the taxi driver and hold him until police arrived.
The driver is believed to be mentally ill and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office. He was also probably under the influence of cocaine and cannabis, according to investigators. The events in Cologne unfolded on Monday at around 10pm when the suspect first hit two women, ages 22 and 23, head on.
