Overview
- Police identified the third victim as a 34-year-old Serbian national believed to have been driving; the other two deceased were men aged 25 and 31 from Croatia.
- A 53-year-old man from Hamburg remains in critical condition and a 47-year-old woman is seriously injured but out of immediate danger; five vehicles were involved.
- Officers say the car had evaded a stop on the A2 minutes earlier, yet no police vehicle was nearby at the time of the crash.
- Investigators outline a sequence of right‑side overtakes, contacts with other cars, a head‑on collision on the B4, and the vehicle breaking through a bridge railing into the Mittellandkanal.
- The submerged car was recovered by a specialist vessel, seized for expert examination, and the probe—now noting the rental car was reported misappropriated—will draw on witness reports and video footage.