It happened in the middle of Berlin. Around 7:30 am, several masked men stopped two vehicles in order to stop a money-carrier of WSN Sicherheit und Service GmbH. The place was apparently carefully selected: Although the Schillingstraße is in the immediate vicinity of Alexanderplatz, the shopping center "Alexa" can be reached from here on foot.

But here are no cameras, only the parking lot in front of the adjacent supermarket is video-monitored. A good place for a robbery. "How can you drive a car in such a dead road?" Asks the owner of the neighboring "Mervan Bistro".

According to police, the perpetrators took turns threatening the inmates of the cashier with weapons, while they broke open the rear doors of the VW van and robbed several boxes.

They spent the money in two cars, an Audi and a Mercedes. Meanwhile, the crew of a patrol car learned of the robbery. The officers, who were actually on their way to another assignment, were close by and took up the chase.

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Raid on a cash transporter: in the middle of Berlin

They raced behind the perpetrators on a Spreebrücke in the direction of the neighboring district of Kreuzberg, through the New Greenway. An employee of the sandwich bar "Celebi Akpolat" was standing there at the coffee machine. She wondered about the racing cars, then heard a bang.

The fleeing robbers had shot at the front of the patrol car. None of the officers were injured. Only a car driver who just wanted to turn into the Neue Grünstrasse and saw the shots, tried to panic. He rammed the road sign with his vehicle, as reported later the employee of the sandwich bar.

The police officers gave up their persecution, the two vehicles with the criminals drove on. One of the two cars, a black R-Class Mercedes, was damaged on the run. The air escaped from his right front tire. It remained in Kreuzberg's Feilnerstraße, a tiny, idyllic play street with vine-covered facades. The robbers from the Mercedes got into the Audi - the second escape vehicle - and escaped.

"I always wanted to work at the Berlin city cleaning"

Now a special commission of the State Office of Criminal Investigation specializing in transports of money transports investigates, together with a homicide commission. The shots on the patrol car can be considered an attempted murder.

Police officers detained the three crime scenes for hours: the Schillingstrasse, where the money-carrier stood. The Neue Grünstrasse, where the shots were fired. And the Feilnerstraße, where the damaged escape vehicle was parked. Forensic scientists secured traces in and on the vehicles involved. At 12:45 pm, the broken-up cash transporter was towed away and taken to the State Office of Criminal Investigation for further investigation, followed later by the bombed police vehicle.

In the early afternoon, a police drone rose in the idyllic courtyard of Feilnerstrasse. In the adjacent Lindenstraße, on which the robbers had continued their escape in the remaining vehicle, the police were on the move with two search parties. The officials looked under the parked cars for evidence.

Video: In the middle of Berlin - robbery on money transporter

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REUTERS

The roadside edges of the New Greenway were also inspected: Here, the forensic technicians even brought the leaves together - in search of the missing cartridge cases. "I've always wanted to work at the Berliner Stadtreinigung," one of them joked as he pushed the leaves off with a floor wiper set.

The barriers in Schillingstrasse were the first to be removed immediately after the money-carrier was towed. It took until the afternoon in the Neue Grünstrasse before the flutter tapes were released and the residents were allowed to go to their apartments without the assistance of an official.

The investigators have set up a notice forum, says Jörn Iffländer from the social media team of the Berlin police. There have already been sent a number of pictures.