Three service members were seriously hurt and two others suffered minor injuries in a one-car crash southwest of Berlin on Saturday, March 27, 2021. Police and U.S. officials did not identify where the service members are based. (Westpfalz police department )

WEIDEN, Germany — Three U.S. service members were seriously injured and two sustained minor injuries in a car crash southwest of Berlin, police and media reports said.

The single-vehicle accident occurred Saturday at 2:15 p.m. on the A9 autobahn in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, about 35 miles southwest of the capital, Brandenburg police said in a statement.

The 19-year-old driver of a Ford lost control during a hail storm, the statement said. The car veered off the road, sliding down an embankment and landing on its roof. A helicopter evacuated the occupants, the statement said.

Firefighters had to free some of the occupants from the wrecked vehicle, the Markische Allgemeine newspaper reported.

German police declined to comment on the service members’ medical statuses or where they were traveling from.

U.S. Army Europe-Africa referred repeated queries to the service members' unit, but as of Friday no further details were made available on which unit it was, where the service members are based or their conditions.

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