A truck ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin today evening, killing at least twelve people and injuring 50 others. The attack took place on the Breitscheidplatz square, near Berlin’s iconic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church along the Kurfürstendamm shopping area.
According to Associated Press, Berlin police have arrested the suspected driver, another accomplice reported died during the ramming attack. Authorities are treating the incident as a terror attack.
German state-run DW News reports:
Nine people are reported to have died as a result of the incident; however, unconfirmed reports state that there may be more fatalities to come. Up tp 50 people have been reported as injured, according to the daily newspaper “Berliner Morgenpost.”The police are treating the event as an apparent terror attack. The driver of the truck is believed to have fled the scene; however, no arrests have been made so far.Several stands at the Christmas market were also destroyed when the truck ploughed into the crowd. The police have cordoned off the area and launched a major investigation.
Berlin Police reported the incident on Twitter
*UPDATE 8:42PM ET (MEC)*
12 have passed away from this attack. From CNN:
The truck had Polish license plates, police spokeswoman Kerstin Ziesmer said.Ariel Zurawski, owner of the truck company, told TVN 24, a private Polish television news network and CNN affiliate, the truck, carrying a steel shipment, may have been hijacked.Zurawski said his cousin — the truck’s regular driver — couldn’t have been behind the wheel and wasn’t the man who ran from the scene.”My scenario is that they did something to him and hijacked this truck,” he said.Witness Emma Rushton told CNN that the truck didn’t slow down. She said the truck was traveling about 40 mph through the crowded pedestrian area.”There’s no way it was an accident,” Rushton said. “We saw at least 10 people” injured and lying on the ground.
In July, Germany was hit by a series of deadly terror attacks carried out by Islamic State. Most of the perpetrator were recent Syrian or Afghan migrants.
Germany Chancellor Merkel has repeatedly defended her open borders policy despite Islamic State using the migrant influx to carry out attacks in Europe. In September 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended Europe-wide border controls — or the Dublin Protocol — thereby opening the floodgates for Arab and Muslim mass-migration into Europe. An estimated million migrants entered Germany last year alone.
[Cover image courtesy DW News, YouTube]
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