Nine killed as truck ploughs into busy Christmas market
A TRUCK ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital Berlin late last night, killing nine people and injuring up to 50 others in a suspected terror attack.
Ambulances and police rushed to the area after the driver drove up the pavement of the market in a central square popular with tourists, in scenes reminiscent of the deadly truck attack in the French city of Nice in July.
In that incident, a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-ton truck along the beachfront, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people.
That attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS).
German media, citing police at the scene, said last night that first indications pointed to an attack on the Berlin market, situated at the foot of the ruined Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, which was kept as a bombed-out ruin after World War 2.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was briefed by the interior minister and Berlin mayor shortly before midnight.
“We mourn the dead and hope that the many people injured can be helped,” her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, tweeted.
The suspected driver of the truck was arrested while the co-driver is thought to have died in the attack, according to a police spokesman. “We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it,” he said.
“One person was detained. The cab of the truck was found empty.”
The police called on Berliners via Twitter to stay at home after the deadly incident.
Germany has been shaken this year by several assaults claimed by the IS group and carried out by asylum-seekers.
An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 people in the same state six days later.
In another case, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl stabbed a policeman in the neck with a kitchen knife in February, wounding him badly, allegedly on IS orders.
ý Earlier in the day, the Russian ambassador in Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead while attending an art exhibition in Ankara by a Turkish policeman who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu akbar” (God is great).
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon condemned the murder as a senseless act of terror.