Berlin terror attack: Tunisian suspect was investigated over earlier terror plot 

The Telegraph's Justin Huggler tells us more about Anis Amri's links with Abu Walaa:

Claims have emerged that Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin terror attack, had links with Abu Walaa, a well-known jihadist preacher who was arrested in Germany last month.

According to details leaked to the German media, Amri was known to be in close contact with Abu Walaa and other members of his circle who were arrested in November, and may even have lived with one for some time.

Abu Walaa, an Iraqi whose real name is Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, is better known as “the faceless preacher” in Germany because he never shows his face in his videos.

He is one of the few extremist preachers in Germany openly to declare his support for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and to praise atrocities carried out by the group.

He was arrested on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to travel to the Middle East to fight for Isil. Until now, he has not been linked to any acts of terror on European soil.

According to a report in Bild newspaper, Amri was seen in his company earlier this year.

He reportedly had closer links to another man among those arrested on the same charges together with Abu Walaa, who has been named only as Boban S,

Amri may have lived with Boban S for some time in the city of Dortmund, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

He was also seen at a travel agency in Duisburg where another extremist preacher named as Hasan C lived, according to Bild.

Hasan C, who was also arrested in November, has been linked to the radicalisation of three German teens currently on trial over the bombing of a Sikh house of prayer in Essen that injured three people.

While Amri’s alleged links with this network have not been officially confirmed, they may shed some light on his decision to go underground earlier this month.

That would have come a matter of weeks after the unexpected arrest of Abu Walaa and the others in a series of coordinated raids across Germany.

The Israeli woman who has been missing since the attack and feared to be among the victims has been named locally as Dalia Elyakim.

Mrs Elyakim, 60, was visiting Berlin as a tourist together with her husband, who has been named as Rami Elyakim.

The husband, who is also 60, was seriously injured in the attack and had to undergo two emergency operations on Tuesday night.

The couple's son and daughter arrived in Berlin on Tuesday night, the Times of Israel reported.

The children of the couple visited their father in the hospital where he remains in serious but stable condition, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported on Wednesday. They also reportedly gave DNA samples to assist in identifying their mother.

“I can confirm that two Israelis were affected by the attack,” Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, the Israeli ambassador to Germany, said. "A man, in his mid-sixties, was severely injured at the hip. He was operated on all night. He is out of danger.

"His wife, who was with him on the Christmas market, is missing so far. We hope she is in another hospital, but so far cannot rule out that is among the deceased."

As dramatic accounts of near-escapes by survivors of the attack continue to emerge, an Italian man says he “looked death in the face” and it is a “miracle” he and his wife survived.

Giuseppe La Grassa, 34, was on holiday celebrating his wedding anniversary and his birthday and described how close his wife Elisabetta came to being killed.

He said: “It is miracle my wife is alive. She was about to go and get a sandwich, but then she delayed a moment and was passed by a girl. The girl was killed, run down by the lorry.”

Mr La Grassa was hit by the back end of the lorry and needed 25 stitches in a facial wound.

Berlin police have asked the "Arab community" for help finding Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri.

In a post shared on social media police issued the public plea for information about the Tunisian man in Arabic, Dari, Farsi and Hurdu.

"We publish the plea for help in a few selected languages. We would be very grateful if you could share any relevant information. We ask for your help."

 

The Telegraph's own Gordon Rayner, Justin Huggler and James Rothwell reconstruct how Anis Amri slipped through the grasp of German police:

The prime suspect for the Berlin massacre was under covert surveillance for months as a possible terrorist threat until police let him slip through their grasp earlier this month.

Anis Amri, 24, a Tunisian asylum seeker who arrived in Germany last year, was investigated for “preparing a serious crime endangering national safety”, involving funding the purchase of automatic weapons for use in a terrorist attack.

Amri had been arrested earlier this year and was known to be a supporter of the terrorist group thought to be behind the Sousse terrorist attack in Tunisia, as well as being a suspected disciple of a notorious hate preacher.

Read the full story here

Berlin Police have announced that the forensic work at the Christmas market has been completed.

"We can return Breitscheidplatz to the Berlin public #WirSindBerlin (we are Berlin)" 

 

February 2011

Flees to Italy after being charged with armed robbery in home country of Tunisia. Claims asylum as a minor.

Sent to prison for four years after committing a series of crimes, including reportedly burning down a school.

Spring 2015

Released from Palermo’s Ucciardone prison. Ordered to be expelled and taken to an expulsion centre at Caltanisetta to await recognition by Tunisian authorities.

July 2015

Expulsion order to Tunisia expires without necessary recognition from Tunisia. Amri is ordered to leave Italy and travels to Germany, entering at Freiburg, near the border with Switzerland and France. 

Lives for some time in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, before moving north to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where he claims asylum.

February 2016

Takes up residence in Berlin

March 14, 2016

German authorities launch investigation following a tip off that Amri may be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

June 2016

Asylum claim is rejected. German authorities prepare to deport him but lack necessary identification documents.

August 2016

Arrested in Germany. Reports suggest he had been involved in a fight or had been caught with forged documents.

German authorities request identification documents from Tunisia to deport Amri.

September 2016

Surveillance of Amri called off with no evidence he was planning to buy a gun. Surveillance shows him dealing drugs and being involved in a bar brawl. Amri disappears from his regular haunts in Berlin. 

November 2016

German police arrest extremists Abu Walaa, Hassan C and Boban S, all of whom had links to Amri. Security services exchange information about Amri and federal police issue a warning that he poses a danger.

Dec 21, 2016

Germany names Amri as suspect behind Christmas market attack as Tunisia delivers necessary documentation for his deportation.

German police commandos raided two apartments in the Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg but did not find the suspect, the Die Welt newspaper reported.

It said investigators believed that Anis Amri may have been in one of the two apartments but he was not.

Police had to overpower a man at one of the apartments, the newspaper reported.

Donald Trump said the attack had proven him to be correct about his plans to impose curbs on Muslims immigrating to the United States.

Mr Trump was asked by reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, if the violence would affect his consideration of a ban on Muslims entering the United States or of a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.

He said: "You know my plans. All along, I've been proven to be right. 100 per cent correct." 

A European arrest warrant for Amri showed he used six different aliases and three different nationalities.

It named Anis Amri as having Tunisian citizenship, born in the town of Ghaza, but also listed half a dozen names, many of them variants of his real name, along with claimed Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship. 

 

Bild newspaper reports that Amri had repeatedly contacted Islamist "hate preachers" including the Iraqi Ahmad Abdelazziz A, alias Abu Walaa, who has since been arrested and accused of supporting Islamic State.

Amri had reportedly searched for people to join him in an attack as early as the spring of this year and once tried to buy a pistol from an undercover police officer, an investigator was quoted as telling Bild. 

More than 4,000 Tunisians have left to join Islamic State and other militant groups overseas, recruited by hardline preachers or online networks.

Tunisia was hit last year by three major militant attacks, two targeting foreign tourists, by gunmen who spent time in jihadist camps overseas.

In Tunisia Amri's sister Najoua tells AFP: "I can't believe my brother could do such a thing. He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful."

His brother Abdelkader said: "When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime."

But, he added, "if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists." 

German authorities said the suspect had been under covert surveillance for several months this year.

Berlin prosecutors told The Associated Press in a statement that they launched an investigation against Amri on March 14 followed a tip from federal security agencies.

The tip warned that Amri, who was considered a potential threat by authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, might be planning a break-in to finance the purchase of automatic weapons for use in an attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September. 

US President-elect Donald Trump condemned "an attack against humanity".

Mr Trump on Monday blamed terrorists who "continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad".

Asked about that statement by reporters outside his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, he said: "It's an attack on humanity, and it's gotta be stopped. What's happening is disgraceful."

Mr Trump said he has not talked to President Barack Obama since the Berlin attack.

Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio reports that the man being sought had previous convictions in Italy and his home country.

Mosaique FM quoted Anis Amri's father saying that his son left Tunisia about seven years ago and spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused over a fire at a school.

He then moved to Germany more than a year ago. The father did not provide details and said he had no contact with his son, although his brothers did.

Mosaique FM quoted Tunisian security officials as saying that Amri was also convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence and sentenced to five years in prison. 

• German authorities say the suspect in Monday's deadly truck attack in Berlin was under covert surveillance for several months this year.
• German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for the arrest of the Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the fatal attack on a Christmas market.
• Berlin's city government says 12 people are still being treated for very serious injuries after the truck attack.

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were today questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market, a security official told AFP.

"A unit of the anti-terrorism brigade has questioned the suspect's family," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

German prosecutors named 24-year-old Tunisian national Amri as their main suspect in the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, which killed 12 people.

The Tunisian security official said Amri's parents, who live in the central town of Oueslatia, were being questioned.

Amri has four sisters and a brother, the source said, but it was unclear if anyone else was being questioned.

The source said Amri had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

Should Germany's popular Christmas markets be ringed with concrete, patrolled by armed soldiers and screened with surveillance cameras?

After a truck ploughed through a crowd of holiday revellers in central Berlin, the country - having so far been spared large-scale attacks - is debating the balance between security and an open society.

"This attack could have been prevented if the square had been protected by concrete barriers," said Joachim Krause, head of the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, about the attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market Monday.

Some cities did quickly react to Monday's carnage - the Christmas markets of Hamburg, Stuttgart and Dresden installed concrete bollards following the Berlin attack.

On the other hand, federal police chief Holger Muench cautioned that, no matter what measures are taken, total security doesn't exist and that "there will always be a risk".

In a similar vein, Berlin mayor Michael Mueller argued that "if we secure everything, if we carry out checks at all the entrances to all public spaces, then that will be at odds with our culture of openness".

Germany has offered a €100,000 bounty for any information leading to the suspect's arrest during a Europe-wide manhunt across the border-free area, as they confirm his identity as 24-year-old Anis Amri.

Italian security services say he arrived in Italy in 2011, claiming to be a minor, before travelling to Germany in 2012. 

Tunisian police have reportedly questioned his family.

The Road Haulage Association is advising its members to exercise caution and stay safe.

More coming in from Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state...

The suspect in the Berlin terror attack was previously investigated in connection with an earlier terror plot, the senior German official has said.

Mr Jäger said an investigation had been launched against the suspect earlier this year on suspicion of "preparing a serious crime endangering national safety".

The investigation was launched by police in North Rhine-Westphalia but mainly conducted in Berlin, he said.

The suspect in the Berlin terror attack was supposed to be deported from Germany but could not be, because he had no valid identity document that could be used to prove he was Tunisian, a senior German official has said.

Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, has been speaking about the suspect, who lived in the state for some time.

As he spoke, a police raid on refugee accommodation where Anis Amri lived was reportedly under way.

Mr Jäger said that the suspect had been in Germany since July 2015. His claim for asylum was rejected in June this year but the authorities were unable to deport him as they could not prove his identity.

German authorities requested Tunisia issue him with a new passport or laissez-passer two months ago. Tunisia initially denied that he was Tunisian but document arrived on Wednesday - two days after the attack.

He moved around Germany and lived in several places, Mr Jäger said. Since February this year he lived mostly in Berlin, but he had been back in North Rhine-Westphalia recently.

Separately, Bild newspaper reported that German authorities requested a passport for Amri from the Tunisian authorities two months ago so he could be deported.

 

German police have begun searching a shelter for migrants in western Germany where a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the truck attack in Berlin is believed to have lived, a local newspaper is reporting.

Rheinische Post said the shelter is in the town of Emmerich, which lies some 140 kilometres (87 miles) north of the city of Cologne, near the border with the Netherlands.

France must raise defence spending given current security threats to two per cent of GDP by 2020 as "you can't win a war without a war effort", the country's chief of the defence staff warned on Wednesday.

General Pierre de Villiers said that attacks on France and other European countries in recent years showed that "peace no longer happens by itself".

In a rare departure from a top French official's "duty of confidentiality", Gen Villiers called for an upgrade to nuclear arsenals and other equipment, and a gradual rise in defence spending over the next five years to reach two percent of gross domestic product, compared to 1.77 percent currently. 

Read the full story from the Telegraph's Paris correspondent, Henry Samuel, here.

Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker with Germany's governing conservatives who speaks on domestic security matters, says the new suspect in the Berlin market attack being sought by German authorities is thought to be a Tunisian with ties to Islamic extremists.

Mayer says the man, whose wallet was found in the cab of the truck that slammed into a busy Christmas market in the German capital on Monday evening, was apparently meant to be deported from Germany earlier this year.

Mayer spoke Wednesday after being briefed by security officials about the investigation into the truck attack.

He said the suspect was being watched by police.

"We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene," he told reporters after a meeting of parliament's interior affairs committee.

Meyer, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said the case underlined his party's drive to see Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria as "safe countries of origin" whose citizens would not normally be granted asylum.

 

The police operation in Düsseldorf has ended.

Officers were investigating a possible sighting of Anis Amri, a suspect in the Berlin terror attack, but it appears to have been a false alarm.

Germany's interior minister has confirmed that authorities are seeking a new suspect in the Berlin attack.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says Wednesday that a manhunt has begun in Germany and in the European Union's border-free Schengen area. He gave no details on the suspect.

He also would neither confirm nor deny details published in German media, which reported that the suspect is a Tunisian whose documents were found in the truck.

A Tunisian official says German investigators are trying to determine the role of a Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the cab of the truck that smashed into Berlin's Christmas market.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the German government hasn't publicly commented on the potential suspect, said Tunisian authorities are requesting more information on the German probe into Anis Amri. He declined to comment further.

The German government has agreed on a bill that will strengthen security considerations when it comes to video surveillance.

The move has been planned for months but its approval by the Cabinet today comes as German authorities are scrambling for footage of the suspected perpetrator of the Berlin attack.

The proposed law would make data protection commissioners give greater weight than before to "the protection of life, health and freedom" when deciding whether to permit video surveillance in public places.

Germany has traditionally had very restrictive data protection rules.

The bill needs to be approved by Parliament.

Police in Düsseldorf are reportedly investigating a possible sighting of the new suspect in the terror attack, Anis Amri, at a department store in the city.

The situation at the department store is reported to be calm. Police are investigating after a witness claimed he had seen the suspect.  

There have also been reports in German media that police were combing hospitals for Amri, as they believed he had been injured in a scuffle with the driver of the truck and could have sought treatment as a victim.

 

The new suspect in the Berlin attack who is now the subject of a nationwide manhunt in Germany was supposed to be under police surveillance as a potential terror threat, but went underground earlier this month, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The suspect, a Tunisian national in his twenties known as 'Anis Amri', is believed to have multiple identity documents under different aliases.

He asked a police informant in North Rhine-Westphalia where he could get hold of a gun, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.

He had been evaluated as a potential terror threat and his telephone was under surveillance, but he managed to give police the slip and went underground earlier this month

He lived with a flatmate who was arrested last month on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to travel to Syria to fight for Isil. The flatmate was one of several men arrested last month on suspicion of recruiting for Isil. 

Another of those arrested was Ahmad Abdelazziz A, also known as Abu Wala and "the faceless preacher", a well-known extremist preacher in Germany. 

The suspect is believed to have been in contact with the preacher and the group of arrested men. He was arrested in August with a false Italian identity document, but released shortly after. Other sources have reported his arrest was in connection with a physical injury case.

He arrived in Germany in 2015 and applied for asylum. He had been in Italy since 2012. 

In April this year he was refused asylum in Germany but allowed to remain in the country, an intermediate status accorded to those who are not entitled to asylum but who the German state considers would be at risk if deported.

A website used by German police to appeal for information about the terror attack was reportedly hacked yesterday. The site, where people are asked to upload mobile phone footage or pictures of the attack, was subject to a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack between 5pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday, according to German newspaper reports.

The site is now up again. It is not clear where the attacks originated from, or whether they had any links to Isil or other terror groups.

A defiant post on Facebook insisting Berliners are not afraid of terorrism has gone viral. The post, couched in typical Berliner humour, has been shared more than 8,000 times and liked more than 26,000 times: 

Here is a rough English translation:

Watch out, you extremist nutcases: This is Berlin. We are Berlin. We ride the S-Bahn in the rush hour. We complain when people are friendly to us. Our taxi drivers are more dangerous than any converts. We grumble at the supermarket. We believe that Union [FC Union Berlin football team] will get promotion and Hertha [Hertha Berlin football team] will be in the Champions League. We eat kebabs and raw fish - at a price that guarantees that there is neither fish nor meat in them. Schultheiss [an old word for mayor, also a local brand of beer in Berlin] is a beer here. And Sternburg! And we love our children like crazy, even if they are lactose-intolerant. Whatever that is. We have nine months of winter and we go straight to work from partying. Some of us are Turks. Or Russians. Or Americans. Pakistanis too Or even Baden-Württembergers [people from a southern German state traditionally seen as very different from Berliners]. Scared of you?! Dream on, Pussies! You can look us up!

The new suspect wanted by police entered Germany as an asylum-seeker in April this year, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The Tunisian, who has been named as Anis Amri, 23, was already considered a threat by German intelligence, the newspaper reports.  

Other newspapers, including Der Spiegel and Bild, have also named the suspect as Anis A.

Anis A allegedly had contacts with the network of an extremist Muslim preacher who was recently arrrested.

Abu Walla, an Iraqi popularly known as "the faceless preacher" because he never showed his face in his videos, was arrested last month on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to go to Syria and fight for Isil.

Anis A, who is also believed to go under the alias Ahmed A, was refused asylum but allowed to remain in Germany.

He lived for a time in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, and also in Berlin.

Since Abu Walla's arrest he is alleged to have gone underground.

 

A 65-year-old German woman is believed to be among the dead.

The woman, who has not been named, was visiting Berlin with her 40-year-old son, who was severely injued in the attack but survived.

The woman is now officially missing but her son has no hope of finding her alive, according to Rheinische Post newspaper.

"I saw what happened to her," he told the newspaper.

The two, from the town of Neuss in western Germany, were on a short pre-Christmas trip to Berlin. They had decided to take a short break from shopping and drink a mug of mulled wine in the Christmas market when the attack took place.

"There was a noise that sounded like the soft popping of fireworks, approaching very quickly," the son said. Then the truck came through the mulled wine stall.  

They were due to return home on Tuesday. The son is now in hospital being treated for several pelvic fractures.

 

It has been reported that the new suspect was previously known to police in connection with a case involving physical injury.

He is reportedly known to have identity documents issued in different names with different birth dates.

According to Spiegel, the document found under the driver's seat of the lorry is a so-called "toleration" paper - a document stating that the holder has been allowed to remain in Germany despite not being granted asylum. 

If confirmed, this would indicate that he may have entered the country as an asylum-seeker.

The documents were issued in Kleve, in the west German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police are searching for a Tunisian man in his early 20s after his identity card was found underneath the seat in the hijacked lorry, according to Speigel magazine.

The magazine said the man was born in 1992 in the town of Tataouine. 

Tataouine, in southern Tunisia, is the town that inspired the planet Tatooine in Star Wars. More recently it has become a base for Isil fighters crossing into Libya.

German police arrested another suspect in the early hours of Wednesday but later released him, German broadcaster rbb is reporting.

Telegraph reporter James Rothwell, in Berlin, says the German press are painting the Polish driver as a hero in a story today on how there was a scrap between the driver and the attacker in the lorry.

The driver is said to have grabbed the steering wheel, trying to stop the lorry from ploughing into the market, while the attacker fought him off with a knife.  "There must have been a fight," a security source said. 

André Schulz, an investigator, says he is "confident that we will be able to identify a new suspect in the near future."

The sole suspect in the case was released without charge yesterday and police admitted they had arrested the wrong man.

Roads in front of Buckingham Palace will be shut during the daily Changing of the Guard ceremony starting from today following the truck attack in Berlin, British police say.

The military ceremony regularly brings crowds of tourists outside the gates of Queen Elizabeth II's residence in central London and previously there have only been some traffic restrictions while it takes place.

London's Metropolitan Police said the closures were a "necessary precaution" because of "the event's high profile in an iconic location with a substantial military presence and attracting large crowds".

The closures had already been planned for a three-month trial period but police said this was being brought forward.

"The planned implementation has been brought forward following the events" in Germany, the police said in a statement. "Alongside the road closures, additional barriers will be in place to maintain security for the guard movements."

The police stressed the security plan was being implemented as "a precautionary measure and not in relation to any specific intelligence".

Michael Downing, Los Angeles police deputy chief, said on Tuesday that his counter-terrorism bureau has been aware for some time of the potential danger from attackers using trucks or other large vehicles to run down pedestrians.

Concrete pillars are already in place to prevent someone from driving a truck onto the sidewalk in many places with heavy pedestrian traffic, .

Mr Downing told the LA Times that additional barriers, including the use of large vehicles, can be added to the concrete pillars already in place in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic to prevent someone from driving a truck onto the sidewalk.

“We are talking to captains in precincts where there are large mass gatherings, be it farmers markets or shoppers,” Mr Downing said. “We are encouraging the use of vehicles and other barriers to protect the crowds.”

Other major law enforcement agencies are also taking extra precautions.

New York police said on Tuesday that they too were taking extra precautions to deter a truck attack. The agency said it has assigned additional officers to patrol potential targets.

Reiner Haseloff, Saxony-Anhalt's president, warned against giving in to fear following the attack. "I hope we hold our nerve," the CDU politician said in an interview with the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. 

"The strategy of the terrorists is to fuel fear and destabilise our society. We must not allow that. We are not at war, it is something completely different, and won't allow the war to be carried by Salafists in our country. 

"There is an attempt to bring unrest in our healthy and democratic society. This effect must not develop."

The father of an Italian woman who has been missing since the attack told Italian press that the family is waiting on DNA results to confirm his daughter is one of the 12 victims of the rampage.

Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a 31-year-old Italian native who has been working and living in Germany for some years, is feared to be among the victims after her mobile phone was found at the scene and she failed to turn up for work on Tuesday morning.

“We are looking for a person and have reasons to be concerned,” Pietro Benassi, the Italian ambassador to Germany told Bild newspaper.

Ms Di Lorenzo's father Gaetano said that the family was under no illusion: "We understood it was over at half past one: we were the ones to call Farnesina (the Italian ministry of foreign affairs)."

"From what my son is telling me from Berlin there are no doubts. He is there with my wife waiting on DNA results, we wait for confirmation but I am under no illusion," he told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The paper also reported that two Italians may be among the wounded. 

James Rothwell's dispatch from Berlin:

As darkness fell on what remained of the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz on Tuesday evening, the sound of hundreds of voices reciting the Lord's Prayer rang out clearly across the streets of the German capital. 

So many mourners had flocked to a memorial service at the nearby Kaiser Wilhelm Church that the priest had been forced to turn people back into the streets. 

Read the full dispatch here

The Telegraph's Gordon Rayner reconstructs the last hours of Polish lorry driver Lukasz Urban.

Lukasz Urban would have been safely on his way home on Monday afternoon but for a hitch that meant he had to stay overnight in Berlin.

The Polish lorry driver had been due to unload his trailer shortly after he arrived in the German capital at 7am, but phoned his wife to say the delivery had been delayed until Tuesday.

Read the full story here

Berlin Police have said the Attorney General will take over the case before adding that they are "intensively cooperating" with the Federal Criminal Police Office in order to seize the offender.

"Results of the investigation must be awaited," police said in a Tweet.

 

A top Democrat on the US house intelligence committee also says that the Islamic State group's claim of responsibility for a truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market cannot yet be confirmed.

Rep Adam Schiff said the claim "cannot be verified until the perpetrator or perpetrators are apprehended by German authorities, but ISIS (Islamic State) has never shied away from claiming credit for attacks - even if it knew nothing about them in advance."

Mr Schiff warned that Europe must brace for the "possibility of further terrorism in the weeks and months ahead as Iraqi forces squeeze ISIS in Mosul and as the group is steadily dislodged from its strongholds in Syria."

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said officials there did not yet have enough information to back up the claim of responsibility by Islamic State.

He said: "There is no direct evidence of a tie or a link to a terrorist organisation, but this bears the hallmarks of previous terror attacks." 

The scene in Berlin tonight:

 

Some history on the square where the attack happened from Michael Kimmelman, a New York Times columnist who used to live nearby:

"Before the war it was he beating heart of western Berlin, a bustling hub bedazzled by bright movie theatre marquees and flashing neon signs, thronged by cabaret-goers, echoing, night and day, with the chatter of revelers and the sounds of honking buses and streetcar bells.

"After the war, it remained a commercial centre for the divided city, the West’s version, more or less, of Herald Square or Piccadilly Circus."

Europe Editor Peter Foster reports:

Angela Merkel is already on borrowed time following the Berlin Christmas market terror attack because of her failure to confront the mistake of a disastrous immigration policy, the leader of the Alternative for Germany (Afd) has told The Telegraph.

"This is a terrible day, but it is not completely unexpected given the warnings from the security authorities, including about the prospect of an attack on Berlin," said Frauke Petry, chairwoman of the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party.

"We cannot go on denying there is a link between Merkel's migration policy and these attacks, or we will prepare that ground for more of these attacks."

Ms Petry, who once caused uproar by comparing multi-cultural societies to "compost", said that success of her party in regional elections this year reflected a fundamental shift in German society away from tolerance for multi-culturalism.

Police in London will institute road closures in the area surrounding Buckingham Palace when the Changing the Guard ceremony is taking place, a security measure rushed into place because of the deadly Christmas market truck attack in Berlin.

The change in procedure had been planned but is being speeded up. The closures and the new physical barriers are set to be in place by Wednesday.

Changing the Guard has long been popular with tourists and police say it is a high-profile event that attracts large crowds at an iconic location.

Under the new plan,road closures will be in place for nearly two hours when the guards are changed in front of the palace in central London.

Police said the change is "a precautionary measure" for the next three months and is not based on any specific intelligence.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said several leads are being followed.

He said: "We just heard about the supposed claim of responsibility by this so-called Islamic State that is in fact a gang of terrorists.

"There are several leads that investigators are following now. Nobody will rest until the perpetrator or the perpetrators are caught."

According to a news agency associated with the terror group the perpetrator was a "soldier of the Islamic State".

It said: "The executor of the operation in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and he executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries."

Germany is not involved in anti-Isil combat operations. But it does have Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. 

Just in from the Associated Press:

German prosecutors say man who was arrested after Berlin truck attack has been released because of insufficient evidence. 

That means, nearly 24 hours after last night's attack, police have no suspects.

The lorry hijacked in the attack, owned by Polish transport company Ariel Żurawski, is pictured here, posted on the company's website's back in November:

Several people have posted up messages of condolence to the driver's family.

This is the same lorry after the attack:

 

US President Barack Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday night to offer condolences and US help, the White House said.

Obama offered condolences for the "horrific apparent terrorist attack," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The president reiterated the US offer of assistance and underscored that no attack could sway our determination - and that of our German allies - to defeat terrorism in all of its forms," the statement said.

Meanwhile, as the sun goes down in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate is lit up with the black, red and yellow of the German flag.

 

From the Associated Press agency:

He was the first victim in the attack on a Berlin Christmas market - a 37-year-old Polish truck driver who was seemingly stabbed and shot to death in the cabin of his truck.

One of his colleagues said he was so dedicated to his work and his truck that he could be expected to defend the vehicle "to the end."

Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old from the western village of Roznowo, near the border with Germany, was found dead in the cabin of the truck that was hijacked and driven into the crowd Monday evening, killing at least another 11 people. German authorities are calling it an "act of terrorism."

Ariel Zurawski, the owner of the trucking company and the victim's cousin, was asked by German authorities to identify Urban from photos.

"It was really clear that he was fighting for his life. His face was swollen and bloodied. Police informed me that he had suffered gunshot wounds. Despite being stabbed he was shot dead," Zurawski told Polish media.

Poland's prime minister, Beata Szydlo, said that the Pole was "the first victim of this heinous act of violence." Berlin police also said in a tweet that the man who was found dead in the truck did not control the truck that drove to the Christmas market.

Zurawski said Urban arrived with a delivery of steel at a branch of the Thyssenkrupp company in Berlin on Monday at 7 a.m. but was told to wait with his delivery until 8 a.m. the following day.

On Tuesday, Zurawski showed reporters a photo on his phone of his cousin in a kebab bar around 2 p.m., the last photo known of him still alive.

Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said authorities have the "exact movement of the truck" from GPS but they are not giving details out and that it was only after the attack that the truck's owner got in touch.

Zurawski said that Urban, who is survived by a wife and teenage son, last had contact with his wife at 3 p.m. local time, but that she couldn't talk then because she was at work. She said she would call at 4 p.m., but at that point he was no longer answering his phone.

Zurawski described unusual movements on the truck's GPS at 3:45 p.m. that indicate Urban was not in control.

"The car was started up, turned off, driven forward, then backward. As if somebody inside was learning how to drive," Zurawski said in a separate interview broadcast on TVP Info, the state broadcaster's all-news network.

There was no more movement until 7.40 p.m., when the truck started and traveled some 10 kilometers (six miles), sometimes turning in tight spots or crossing the double line, and arrived at the Christmas market, Zurawski said.

Lukasz Wasik, the manager of the Polish trucking company whose truck was used in the attack, described Urban, as a "good, quiet and honest person" devoted to his work, and the vehicle he drove.

"I believe he would not give up the vehicle and would defend it to the end if attacked," Wasik said in quotes carried by TVP, Poland's state broadcaster.

Here is a comment piece from our resident Berlin travel expert, Paul Sullivan, on how the capital, Germany’s most tolerant and multicultural city, was "expecting" a terror attack.

 

 

Matthew Day reports:

Lukasz Urban's employer issued a brief statement on its Facebook page on behalf of "family, friends and colleagues" thanking people for the messages of condolences and support it has received from the public.

"What has happened has shaken us to the core," it says. "We've lost a husband, a father, a son and a good worker."

Two British witnesses have been talking on BBC Radio 5 Live about the aftermath of the attack.

Sarah Dobler, who was visiting the market with her boyfriend, said: “I couldn’t understand what the man on the floor was saying, he was trying to get up but his head injury was severe.”

“I held his hand, and told him everything was going to be okay – it was as if we were in a horror film,” she added.

To hear more, follow the audio link:

 

German political expert Sophia Besch says Angela Merkel's facing tough questions over her asylum policy following the Berlin attack:

Here is Merkel's visit earlier to the Berlin attack site:

 

Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent, with an update:

Of those injured in the attack, 25 are still being treated in hospital, and 14 are serious condition, the Berlin health ministry has said.

Another 24 have been released from hospital.

Earlier Germany's federal public prosecutor Peter Frank said the "modus operandi" of the attack had echoes of July's atrocity in Nice, in which 86 people died, and could have been the work of Islamic extremist groups, with the target of the attack "highly symbolic".

But he told a press conference it was unclear if the attacker had an Islamist background, adding: "For now we don't know whether there was one attacker or several attackers. We also don't know whether they had support...

"We have to think that the person who was arrested yesterday, a man of Pakistani nationality, we have to be open to the idea that he could possibly not have been the attacker."

While the attack at the heart of the German capital is being treated as terrorism, no organisation has come forward to claim responsibility, Mr Frank said.

Reports of possible victims of the attack are coming in.

Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent, reports:

Two Israeli citizens were caught up in the attack, the Israeli ambassador to Germany has said.

A man in his sixties was seriously injured and had to undergo emergency surgery. His wife is still missing and it is feared she may be among the dead.

"I can confirm that two Israelis were affected by the attack on the Memorial Church," Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, the ambassador, said. "A man, in his mid-sixties, was severely injured at the hip. He was operated on all night. He is out of danger. 

"His wife, who was with him on the Christmas market, is missing so far. We hope she is in another hospital, but so far cannot rule out that is among the deceased."

From Nick Squires and Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent:

Italian authorities fear an Italian woman may have been one of the victims of the attack after her phone was found at the scene, Corriere della Sera newspaper reports.

Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, a 31-year-old Italian woman who has been living and working in Germany for some years, has been missing since the attack.

Her family are believed to be on their way to Berlin.

"We are looking for a person and have reasons to be concerned," Pietro Benassi, the Italian ambassador to Germany confirmed to Bild newspaper.

The alarm was raised when she failed to turn up for work on Tuesday morning.

Her family, from Sulmona in central Italy, have launched appeals on social media for information about her whereabouts.

A relative wrote on Twitter: “My cousin Fabrizia Di Lorenzo not replying to us since yesterday night. Some1 found her phone and metro pass on the site. #help”

Miss Di Lorenzo had been working for a transport company in Berlin for two years, but had lived in the German capital since 2013, when she started working for Bosch. 

As an undergraduate she studied in Rome and then completed a course in international relations in Bologna. She was also an Erasmus student at Berlin’s Free University.

Speaking at Westminster today, Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed her shock over the terror attacks in Ankara and Berlin and expresses her condolences over the loss of life:

This, it is believed, is Lukasz Urban, the driver who was the first victim of the Christmas market attack.

The Telegraph cannot yet verify this picture, but it is reported in the Polish media.

Mr Urban was a 37-year-old father-of-one. He was killed in the carnage that saw a 25-tonne truck career through Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Square, which killed 12 and injured dozens more.

Berliner Zeitung newspaper reports that blood and DNA found inside the cab of the hijacked lorry do not match that of the arrested man, casting further doubt on whether he was involved.

"As there are doubts over whether the arrested man was responsible, it is unclear if the real perpetrator is still at large," Holger Münch, the head of the Bundeskriminalamt, Germany's national CID, said.

The fact that the gun with which the Polish passenger found inside the lorry was killed has not been found was a source of concern, he said.

"We are at high alert," he said. Police said a 'dangerous criminal' may still be at large.

Peter Frank, the chief prosecutor, said it was still not certain that the attack had an Islamist background.

"From the chosen target and behaviour of the perpetrator, you can infer an Islamist motive," he said. "But we must continue to investigate in all directions."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have visited the site of the attack to pay their respects. 

 

From Justin Huggler in Berlin

Six of the dead in the attack have been identified so far, in addition to the Polish man found inside the lorry, the head of German CID has said.

All six were German nationals, Holger Münch told a press conference. Further details were not released. The names of crime victims are not generally released in Germany. 

There may have been more than one perpetrator involved in the attack, the German attorney general has said.

"It is unclear whether there are one or more perpetrators," Peter Frank told a press conference in Berlin. "It is unclear whether there accomplices were involved. The investigation is still going on. We have to accept the possibility that the arrested man may not be the perpetrator."

Video footage of the attack was being studied, Mr Frank said. It was clear that the Polish driver who was found dead inside the lorry had been abducted, he said.

From Matthew Day in Warsaw:

Ariel Zurawski, the owner of the lorry, has told local media he suspected that something was wrong when the GPS on the vehicle, which indicated its position every 10 minutes, started to show erratic movements.

"At about 3pm [on Monday the driver] talked with his wife, and then at 3:45pm the lorry started to move. The whole route was shown. The vehicle was illuminated and it started to move backwards and forwards. It was like the whoever was in charge was being taught to drive. Later, at 7:40pm there was no movement, and the vehicle stood still in the same place. Then it started to move."

The attack occurred at 8pm local time.

He added that the driver appeared to know Berlin quite well.

The owner of a Polish trucking company says the driver who was the first victim of the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin was stabbed and shot to death in the cabin of his truck.

Ariel Zurawski says German authorities asked him to identify the victim, Lukasz Urban, 37, from photos.

"His face was swollen and bloodied. It was really clear that he was fighting for his life," Zurawski said, speaking to broadcaster TVN.

Lukasz Wasik, the manager of the trucking company, described Urban as a "good, quiet and honest person" devoted to his work.

"I believe he would not give up the vehicle and would defend it to the end if were attacked," Wasik said in comments carried by TVP, Poland's state broadcaster.

Police now say the latest incident in Berlin is not terror-related.

A van crashed into tram tracks near the city's Hackescher Market on Tuesday afternoon after a brief police chase.

But police say the driver was fleeing the scene of a traffic accident and the incident had nothing to do with the Christmas market attack.

A van has crashed into tram tracks near the city's Hackescher Market after a brief police chase.

The site is currently blocked off and rescue workers are on the scene. It is not clear whether the incident is linked to the Christmas market attack or is terrorism-related.

Fresh detail from Justin Huggler in Berlin

Bild newspaper reports that no gunshot residue has been found on the arrested man, casting further doubt on whether he is the perpetrator.

 

From the Associated Press

Berlin's police chief says it isn't clear whether the man detained in the wake of Monday's fatal truck attack on a busy Christmas market was really the driver.

Klaus Kandt told reporters in Berlin that "we haven't been able to confirm it yet."

 

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, has offered his condolences after the Berlin Christmas market attack and said Britain stands ready to help Germany in any way needed. 

In a short statement to television cameras, Mr Johnson said: “We mourn the loss of a dozen Germans and many others injured.

"Our thoughts are very much with the families of those who’ve been injured or who’ve lost their lives in that appalling attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

“We are talking obviously to our German counterparts to see what help we can offer.”

He also commented on the killing of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, Turkey, saying the attack was an “absolute outrage. 

More on reports that the wrong man has been arrested from Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent:

German police believe they arrested the wrong man over the Berlin terror attack and the real culprit could still be at large, a German newspaper has claimed.

The real perpetrator could be armed and dangerous, it is being warned.

"We have the wrong man," an unnamed police source told Welt newspaper. "This means the situation is different. The real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities."

Welt said its information came from "high-ranking circles" in the Berlin police.

The arrested man is denying all involvement with the attack, the German interior minister confirmed this morning.

The claim that he may be the wrong man came as another newspaper named him as Naved B.

Pakistani authorities are currently investigating two men by that name to see if one of them is the arrested man, Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported.

One of the two men was born in Pakistan, while the other was born in Afghanistan, in the province of Nimroz.

Pakistan was checking the men at the request of the German authorities, an unnamed source in the Pakistani foreign ministry told the newspaper.

More on the Interior minister briefing from Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent:

Many of the victims of the Berlin terror attack are still being identified, Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said in a statement on Tuesday morning. 

"There is no longer any doubt that this is a terror attack. The truck was deliberately aimed at people who wanted to spend a peaceful and happy evening," Mr de Maiziere said.

"It was a brutal assassination that people had to experience in Berlin."

There has been no claim of responsibility from Isil or any other terror group so far, the minister said -- "at least not via the channels and ways known to us".

He confirmed that the arrested suspect is from Pakistan and is denying any involvement in the attack. The arrested man arrived in Germany on December 31 last year and requested asylum, but had not yet completed the asylum procedure after several scheduled hearings did not take place, Mr de Maiziere said. 

The minister confirmed that one victim was killed with a gunshot. This is believed to be a Polish driver abducted with the hijacked lorry. Investigations were still underway into when he was killed, Mr de Maiziere said.

Christmas markets across Berlin will be closed today as a mark of respect but will open again tomorrow, Mr de Maiziere said. "I believe it is right that the Christmas markets should continue to operate across Germany," he said.

"We must not allow fear to rule our lives," he said. "If we retreat, the enemies of freedom have already won."

 

 After it was reported that Naved B was denying responsibility for the attack, Die Welt now reporting that police arrested 'wrong man', citing senior police sources

 

Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent writes:

The arrested suspect in the Berlin attack was previously known to police in connection with a case of sexual assault, it has emerged.

He was questioned by police over a sexual assault in July, Germany's DPA news agency reports. An entry was made about the case in the German national police database. Further details have not been disclosed. Police previously said the arrested man was known to them in connection with non-terror-related crime, but gave no details.

If it is confirmed that the man was a suspect in a sexual assault, it would be seen as reminiscent of the New Year sex attacks in Cologne and could further inflame public opinion. Angela Merkel was widely criticised over her refugee policy in the wake of the Cologne attacks, but this would be the first overt link between a terror attack and sexual assault.

Reuters alert:

German Interior minister, Thomas De Maiziere says there is "no doubt anymore" that the Berlin Christmas market incident was a terror attack.

 

Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent writes:

There are unconfirmed reports the arrested suspect is from the province of Baluchistan in the west of Pakistan, Sources close to the investigation say the suspect is from the troubled province, Berliner Zeitung newspaper reports.

Baluchistan has long been a base for Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taleban, and more recently Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has become active there. Isil claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the provincial capital, in October. Khaledh Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was originally from Baluchistan, although he grew up in Kuwait.

Justin Huggler, our  Berlin correspondent writes:

The arrested suspect in the Berlin attacks is denying that he was the driver of the truck, Germany's DPA news agency reports.

The 23-year-old, named as Naved B, a Pakistani citizen who sought asylum in Germany in February, is currently being questioned by police. But he is denying all knowledge of the attack, DPA reports.

 

From Reuters

The suspect in an incident at a Christmas market in Berlin where a truck ploughed into crowds and killed 12 people has had a temporary residence permit since June 2016, German newspaper Die Welt cited a criminal police report as saying.

The report also said that there continued to be a high threat from Islamic terrorism in Germany but there was no concrete threat.

A German security source said the suspect was a 23-year-old migrant from Pakistan known to police for committing minor offences. 

From Agence France Presse

President Francois Hollande said Tuesday France was under a "high level of threat" from terror attack following the carnage at a Berlin Christmas market.

Hollande said although France faced an elevated threat, it also already had a large-scale "security operation" in place following a string of jihadist outrages in the country over the past two years.

From Justin Huggler, our Berlin correspondent:

The suspect in the Berlin terror attack was only captured because of the swift and courageous actions of a bystander, it has emerged,

The man, who has not been named, saw the driver of the truck flee from the scene and followed him, police told Welt newspaper.

Keeping at a safe distance , he called police as he ran and gave the location of the fugitive.

The driver ran into the Tiergarten Park, presumably to try to exploit the cover of darkness in the woods.

Thanks to the witness' prompt action, police were able to arrest the driver at the Victory Column monument in the middle of the park.

"This civic courage can give us strength today," a police spokesman told Welt.

Police said they were not naming the heroic bystander as they believe he wishes to remain anonymous.

 

From the Associated Press:

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo says it is "with pain and sadness we received the information that the first victim of this heinous act of violence was a Polish citizen."

Ms Szydlo told reporters that Monday's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin is a reminder that "Europe must become unified in the fight against terrorism and Europe must take effective action to protect its citizens."

Justin Huggler, our Berlin Correspondent, has sent a full version of Angela Merkel's statement:

"We do not want to live in fear of evil," Angela Merkel said in a statement on the attack on Tuesday.

"The whole country is united with the victims and bereaved in deep sorrow," the German chancellor said. "We all hope and many of us pray for them. That they can find comfort and support. That they can live on after this terrible blow.

"I am sad and shaken, together with millions of people in Germany. Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans, are no longer there.

Dressed all in black, Mrs Merkel said it would be "particularly repugnant" if the perpetrator is confirmed to be some one who was given asylum in Germany as a refugee.

"This act will be thoroughly investigated and punished as severely as our laws permit," she said.

"How can we live with a murderer choosing to strike at a place where we celebrate life?" she said. 

The chancellor said her thoughts were with the victims."I want them to know we're all united with them in mourning," she said. "We pray for the injured. That they can be healthy and live again. "

She thanked police and rescue workers "from the heart for their onerous service" and concluded: "There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack."

From Reuters:

Europe's "cup of patience" over migration is beginning to spill over, the Slovak Prime Minister said on Tuesday, following an attack on a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 and wounded dozens.

"The facts are simple: a migrant who arrived in Germany and got refugee status ... is now interrogated as a suspect responsible for this heinous, repugnant crime," Robert Fico told a televised news conference.

"I think that the cup of patience is beginning to spill over and Europe's public will rightfully expect rather stronger (anti-migration) measures."

The Interior minister of the German State of Saarland has given an interview in which he has described Germany being "in a state of war", even though many people "don't want to realise that".

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that authorities believe a deadly rampage by a lorry driver at a Berlin Christmas market was a "terrorist" attack likely committed by an asylum seeker.

"According to what we know, we have to assume this was a terrorist attack," Merkel, visibly moved and dressed in black, told reporters.

"I know it will be especially hard for us to take if it is confirmed that the person who committed this attack sought protection and asylum in Germany."

 

From Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent condolences to Germany after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48, calling the attack "shocking".

"This crime against peaceful civilians is shocking in its savage cynicism," Putin wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, according to a statement on the Kremlin's website.

From Reuters:

One of those found dead after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin had been shot, German magazine Focus Online reported on Tuesday, citing the interior minister for the state of Brandenburg.

The victim was most likely the Polish driver of the truck, Brandenburg Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter said in Potsdam, referring to information from a telephone conference of state interior ministers, the magazine said. He said the Polish driver was a victim, not a perpetrator, the magazine said.

Police said earlier that the man found dead in the truck was a Polish citizen but added he was not in control of the vehicle.

Carsten Nickel of Teneo Intelligence, the risk consultancy, provides the following snap assessment of the potential political impacts of the Berlin Christmas market attack:

"Politicians and especially Merkel have long feared an attack in Germany. Now that this threat might have materialized, its political impact is probably bigger shortly before Christmas than at any other time of the year. The relative calm of the news cycle during the holiday period will further amplify its effect on the public debate.

"In a worst-case scenario for Merkel, recent speculation would prove correct that the truck’s alleged driver entered Germany in February via the Balkan migration route. If this was indeed the case, the debate about Merkel’s migration policy would likely flare up again once the immediate shock has subsided – fuelled mainly by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

"However, it remains difficult to envisage a scenario in which Merkel fails to get re-elected in the 2017 Bundestag polls. Even with a stronger AfD performance than the 12% at which it is currently polling, finding coalition partners is probably even more important than poll performance under a proportional electoral system."

 

Berlin police said on Twitter on Tuesday that investigators assume that the lorry was intentionally driven into the crowd.

"Our investigators assume that the truck was deliberately steered into the crowd at the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz," police said.

They added that measures related to the "suspected terrorist attack at Breitscheidlplatz in Berlin are progressing at full stream." 

 

Forensic units are still collecting evidence at the scene of the crash, CNN reported.

Police have not revealed the identity of the person arrested and have said that they cannot confirm that this was the person at the wheel when the accident occurred.

Berlin police have confirmed that the Polish man who was found dead in the lorry was not the driving at the time of the crash.

 

The passenger who died in the lorry was a Polish national, Berlin police said on Twitter in the early hours of Tuesday.

Police have not identified the man nor give any other details.

Ariel Zurawski, the Polish owner of the lorry, said earlier that he feared the vehicle may have been hijacked.

Mr Zurawski told Polish television that his cousin, who is 37-year-old, had initially been driving the truck, but he believed it had been hijacked. 

“I can say, hand on heart, that the man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver,” Mr Zurawksi said.

“This is my cousin. I’ve known him since birth. I have faith in him, this is not the man I know, they have done something to him.”

He said he believed the dead man found inside the cab of the lorry was his cousin.

Berlin police have raised the death toll to 12 with 48 injured in the early hours of Tuesday adding that some of the injured are in severe condition.

Police had previously reported that 9 people had died and at least 50 were injured in the incident.

 

Unconfirmed reports in the German press on Monday night claimed that the driver of the truck had arrived in the country this year as a refugee from Pakistan. 

German newspaper "Die Welt" reported sources saying that the suspected driver is a Pakistani refugee who arrived in the country on February 16, 2016.

The newspaper, which had previously reported the nationality of the suspect to be Chechen, quoted the Tagesspiegel reporting that the person arrested in connection to the incident was known to police for minor criminal offences unrelated to terrorism. 

Daily newspaper Tagesspiegel reported "security sources" saying that the person arrested was "Pakistani or Afghani". The report has not been confirmed.

 

 

"It is suspected that the truck was stolen from a construction site in Poland. The investigations are still ongoing." Berlin police said on Monday night on Twitter.

The Polish owner of the lorry that ploughed into the market confirmed his driver was missing.

"We haven't heard from him since this afternoon. We don't know what happened to him. He's my cousin, I've known him since I was a kid. I can vouch for him," transport company owner Ariel Zurawski told AFP.

The company's transport manager, Lukasz Wasik, said the driver is 37 years old and had been transporting Thyssen steel products from Italy to Berlin.

"The company where he was supposed to unload the products in Berlin was not able to receive them and told him to return on Tuesday morning. They told him to wait in Berlin somewhere," Wasik told AFP.

"We lost contact with him around 3:00 pm local time (1400 GMT). We don't know what happened - whether he was taken hostage, killed. We know nothing. We're very worried about him."

"What a tragedy," he added.

Eyewitness Emma Rushton describes seeing the truck that rammed through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing at least nine people.

 

The rescue operation at the incident site has terminated, Berlin police said on Twitter.

Police say that 45 people have been taken to hospital.

 

US president-elect Donald Trump has blamed 'Islamist terrorists' for 'slaughter' of Christians in Berlin in a statement released late on Monday.

The White House and Italian foreign minister have referred to the market incident as an "attack" while German authorities have refrained from using the term to describe the events so far. 

"ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad," Mr Trump said in the statement, using an acronym for Islamic State or Isil.

On Twitter, thee president-elect said the attack, along with others in Turkey and Switzerland, showed "it is only getting worse. The civilized world must change thinking!" 

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there were many signs that the incident was an attack.

"I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet, although there are many things pointing to one," he told public television after at least nine people were killed in the incident.

Angelino Alfano, the Italian foreign minister, says he was "deeply stricken and pained" by the deaths of nine people in Berlin when a heavy truck crashed into a Christmas market.

Though German police say it is too early to call whether the incident was intentional, Mr Aflano referred to it as an attack.

In a statement provided by Italy's foreign ministry, Alfano expresses closeness to Germans "in this sad moment that instead should be of joy and peace in the approach to the Christmas holidays."

Alfano says attacks "won't change our determination to combat terrorism" alongside international partners and in particular Germany, saying the two countries are in strict coordination.

"Disgusting attack to the heart of Europe," the minister said on Twitter. 

"Close to the victims' families, to the German government and people hit by this tragedy #Berlin".

French president Francois Hollande expressed his "solidarity and compassion" with the German people and chancellor on Twitter.

Separately, Italy's ambassador in Berlin, Pietro Benassi, told Italian state TV that German authorities couldn't say yet if any foreigners were among the victims.

The nationality of the suspected truck driver is still unclear, a police spokesman said.

The suspect, who fled the crash scene and was later arrested, was being interrogated by officers, police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf told reporters.

He added that the crashed truck had a Polish license plate and that German officials were in contact with Polish authorities.

Security has been beefed up at Christmas markets throughout France following the deadly "attack" in Berlin on Monday, French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said.

"Security at Christmas markets was immediately reinforced" after "the attack" in which a lorry ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market killing at least nine people, he said.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016. In November, the US state department issued an alert to its citizens about a heightened risk of terrorist attacks throughout Europe, particularly during the holiday season.

The lorry belongs to a Polish firm based in the northern town of Gryfino, just a stone's throw from the German border.

The company owner said the vehicle involved in the incident was new and only had about 30,000 kilometres on the clock. 

German police said that the dead passenger in the truck's passenger seat was Polish, the nationality of the suspected driver is still unclear.

 

The United States labeled the Berlin events as an apparent "terrorist attack".

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms what appears to have been a terrorist attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany, which has killed and wounded dozens," White House National Security spokesman Ned Price said in a statement late on Monday.

"Germany is one of our closest partners and strongest allies, and we stand together with Berlin in the fight against all those who target our way of life and threaten our societies.

"We have been in touch with German officials, and we stand ready to provide assistance as they recover from and investigate this horrific incident."

 

Matthew Day in Warsaw writes:

Ariel Zurawski, the owner of the lorry, told Polish television: “This is my cousin. I’ve known him since birth. I have faith in him, this is not the man I know, they have done something to him.”

Mr Zurawski said he believed his cousin and had been high jacked and his lorry stolen.

“I can say hand on heart that the man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver.”

He added that the driver had left Italy and was staying in Berlin where he was due to drop off his cargo of steel elements. The laden lorry weighed about 25 tonnes.

Mr Zurawski said his cousin had been in the profession for 15 years and was an experienced driver. “His wife had talked with about noon but after 4pm she could not get hold of him.”

The lorry's owner added: "My wife told me they had found a body in the cab. From what they say it could be my driver. My cousin. Please forgive me but I can't talk any more now."

Poland's foreign ministry said on Monday night that it had no information on the nationality of the driver.

The director of the SITE intelligence group says that the New York Post report is wrong.

 

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force has tweeted that Isil was taking credit for the incident, according to the New York Post.

It's worth bearing in mind that claims of responsibility have to be approached with caution: they do not necessarily mean that an attack was directed by them, or indeed that it had anything to do with them. It's often just a celebration.

Joseph Spencer in Berlin writes:

Police have closed the access roads to traffic from up to half a mile away from Der Hohle Zahn, or the hollow tooth, as the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is known to locals. There are still a remarkable number of people on the streets, though nearly all are moving in the same direction away from church.

My Turkish-German taxi driver, Fathi, born in Berlin, showed me a video he downloaded to his iPhone of what appeared to be the immediate aftermath of truck crash, with people on the ground and others screaming in the background.

"It's not good for Germany, no, it's not good for the world" he told me.

The Christmas market by the church itself has been cordoned off by armed police every few metres or so, but is otherwise quiet.

Reuters - BERLIN STATE INTERIOR MINISTER SAYS BACKGROUND OF TRUCK CRASH AT BERLIN CHRISTMAS MARKET STILL UNCLEAR, COULD BE ACCIDENT OR ATTACK

 

Emma Rushton, a British tourist, has been speaking to CNN from her hotel room in Berlin.

She said:

"We were enjoying the Christmas lights when we heard a loud bang.

"We were sitting down, ready to get up. We saw to our left Christmas lights torn down and we saw the top of an articulated lorry crashing through the stalls and through people."

The lorry was driving fast, and it showed few signs that it was slowing down, she said. She looked on in horror as the black 7.5-tonne vehicle ploughed through a mulled wine stand, crushing those inside and around it.

"We wanted to get out as soon as possible, we wanted to get to a safe place.

"I saw people bleeding, lying in the pavement. The store  where mulled wine was being served was crushed."

She said she considered stopping to help the wounded, but decided it was too dangerous to remain in the area, and instead returned to her hotel. 

"From my opinion, it was going at 40mph, there was no road nearby and no signs it was slowing down.

"It did not feel like an accident...there was no way it could have come off like an accident, it was through the middle of the market."