Recklinghausen police repeatedly urged citizens responding to their original tweet not to jump to conclusions, but rather to wait until police have conducted a thorough investigation of the incident.
A press release issued Thursday evening by the Bochum State Prosecutor's Office and Recklinghausen police stated that the driver, a resident of the city of Herten, was currently hospitalized with serious injuries, and that authorities were not ruling out the possibility that he intended to commit suicide.
Germany, like many countries, is well aware of the possibility that the accident could have been intentional. Two years ago, Anis Amri, a Tunisian-born criminal and radicalized Islamic terrorist, drove a semi-trailer truck into a crowd of people at a Berlin Christmas market, killing three people and injuring 55 more.
