BERLIN: The truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 49, was driven by a Pakistani or Afghan refugee at the crowd deliberately in a presumed terrorist attack, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The truck drove between 50 and 80 metres through the market at the historic Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church late Monday, near one of the German capital’s most popular shopping streets.
The suspected driver, who fled the scene, was taken into custody shortly afterwards a few kilometres away. Police have not released details on his identity but BBC quoting security officials said he is Pakistani or Afghan origin.
Public broadcaster RBB reported he came to Germany in December 2015 from Pakistan.
The suspect was known to police for minor criminal offences, but not terrorist activity, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere refused to label the incident a terrorist attack, though he said “a lot points in that direction.”
“We want to be very, very cautious and operate close to the investigation results, not with speculation,” he told broadcaster ARD.
A man found dead in the passenger seat of the truck, which was owned by a Polish company, was later identified as a Polish citizen. It was not clear how he died. Police said he had not been behind the truck’s wheel when it drove through the market.
The company’s owner, Ariel Zurawski, told Polish broadcaster TVN 24 that the truck had earlier in the day been driven by his cousin, who had been transporting steel to Berlin and had not been reachable since the late afternoon.
German police said later they were working on the assumption that the truck had been stolen from a construction site in Poland.
