News

Berlin explosion: Suspected car bomb kills 1

A 43-year-old man died when a car bomb went off in Berlin on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, according to the city's police force. (polizeiberlin/Twitter)

BERLIN — A 43-year-old man died Tuesday morning when a car bomb exploded during rush-hour traffic in Berlin, according to the city's police force.

No other injuries were reported.

Photos from the scene showed debris scattered on Bismarckstrasse outside a badly damaged Volkswagen Passat. The vehicle's windows were blown out and its front-end smashed.

The explosion went off around 8 a.m. Berlin time on a busy street leading into the city from the district of Charlottenburg, The Guardian reported.

Berlin police said the explosion did not appear to be related to terrorism. Instead, investigators were looking at possible links to organized crime, according to a report from Der Tagesspiegel.

The victim was identified by police as a 43-year-old man, although authorities declined to release his name. Der Tagersspiegel reported the victim was a Turkish citizen with a criminal history, although he had not been in trouble since 2008.

Witnesses said the killed man started his car and traveled just a few yards before the explosion, according to The Telegraph. The force of the blast threw the Passat roughly 80 yards.

Police asked citizens to stay in their homes with their windows closed as a bomb squad searched for evidence of a second bomb. Although investigators remained on the scene more than five hours after the blast, authorities said the scene was clear of any other suspected explosives.

In recent years, Berlin's police force has been battling with criminal motorcycle gangs, which profit off the city's illegal drug trade, The Telegraph reported.