Car Hits Gates of Merkel’s Berlin Office, Causes ‘Minor Damage’

(Bloomberg) -- A passenger vehicle caused minor damage when it hit the gates of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in central Berlin on Wednesday.

Unverified photographs posted on Twitter showed a car next to the gate, with police and ambulance personnel standing nearby. The vehicle had slogans painted on it reading: “You damn child and old people killers” and “Stop globalisation policy.”

A German government spokesperson contacted by Bloomberg said that the impact was at low speed and had caused “slight damage.” Berlin police said in a tweet that the driver had been taken into custody and they were seeking to determine if he had deliberately driven into the gate.

Merkel was chairing a meeting of her cabinet in the building at the time of the incident.

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