Shafaq News/ A series of crashes caused by a 30-year-old Iraqi man on a Berlin highway was an Islamic extremist attack, prosecutors told the German news agency DPA on Wednesday, the New York Times reported.

"According to the current state of our investigation this was an Islamist-motivated attack,” the office said. Without revealing the man's identity.

According to the newspaper, six people were injured, three of them severely, when the man allegedly drove into several vehicles, including a motorcycle, along a stretch of the German capital’s highway on Tuesday evening. The crashes at three different locations led to a complete closure of one of the main traffic arteries of Berlin.

There were also indications that the man was suffering from psychological problems, DPA reported.

Local media reported that the man, who was driving an Opel Astra, later stopped on the highway and put a box on the roof of his car, claiming it had explosives inside. Specialists opened the box and found only tools. The man was detained by police.