Berlin Truck Attack Update: Death Toll In German Christmas Market Crash Grows, Officials Probing Potential Terror Attack

UPDATE: 7:35 a.m. EST — The driver of a truck that went through a popular Christmas market in central Berlin killing at least 12 people is still at large and dangerous, Germany's Die Welt reported, citing police. The report added that local police have the “wrong man” in custody.

A man believed to be of Pakistani origin is currently in custody and has denied any links to the incident, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said at a press conference earlier Tuesday.

UPDATE: 06:47 a.m. EST — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, in a press conference Tuesday, said 18 people were “very seriously injured” in the Monday attack in which a truck barreled through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin killing at least 12 people.

He confirmed reports that said the suspect, Naved B., is believed to have come from Pakistan adding that the man did not have a criminal record. He was not present on any database for terror suspects and his application for asylum had not been confirmed, Maizière said, adding that the man spoke the Baluchi dialect for which no translator has been found yet.

The suspect arrived in Germany on Dec. 31, 2015, and in Berlin in February. He denied any links to the attack, Maizière said.

Speaking from Berlin, the interior minister said one of the 12 people who died was found in the passenger seat of the truck and was shot by a pistol. The pistol has not been recovered.

He urged Germans to not “compromise our lifestyle, if we do that the enemies of freedom have already won. We are deeply saddened but we also fight for our freedom.” He confirmed that Christmas markets will be shut Tuesday but will function once again from Wednesday. “To simply stop would be wrong,” Maizière said.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Breitscheidplatz, the site of the attack located in the western part of central Berlin, later Tuesday.

UPDATE: 05:35 a.m. EST — German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a short statement Tuesday on the Berlin truck attack, which left at least 12 people dead and 48 injured.

Here's an extract from Merkel's statement.

“Twelve people, who were looking forward to Christmas and had plans for the festive season, are no longer amongst us. It a terrible deed which one cannot understand. Many people who were injured are fighting for their lives. In these hours our first thoughts are for these people – the dead, the injured, their families, their friends.
The whole of the country is with you in deep sadness. We all hope for you and many prayer for you.
I have great trust in the men and women that have worked since last night on solving this heinous deed. It will be solved, in every detail, and it will be punished, as severely as our laws demand. For now, there is little we know of this deed with certainty.
But given the current information we have, we have to assume we are dealing with a terrorist attack. I know that it would be particularly hard to bear for all of us if it was confirmed that a person committed this crime who asked for protection and asylum in Germany. This would be particularly repugnant in the face of the many many Germans who have dedicated themselves day after day to helping refugees, and in the face of the many people who actually need our protection and try to integrate into our country.”
I’m in constant contact with the Minister of Interior De Maiziere, with the president, and with the Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller. The cabinet will convene in a few hours.
Together with the mayor and the minister of the interior I will go to the Breitscheildplatz in the afternoon in order to pay our respects. Millions of people are asking how can someone take so many lives when we are celebrating life in the festive season. We do not want to allow ourselves to be paralysed by terror. Although it might be difficult we will find the strength to continue living life as we want to live it in Germany - in freedom, openness and together.”

UPDATE: 5 a.m. EST — German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a statement Tuesday called the Berlin Christmas market attack a “terrible deed,” Sky News reported. The chancellor thanked emergency services and said that she trusts the authorities investigating the attack. She added that many people were seriously wounded.

“This unspeakable event will be as severely punished as the law will allow,” Merkel said. “We must assume it was a terrorist attack.”

Meanwhile, the German interior ministry said Christmas markets across the country will remain closed Tuesday as a mark of respect for the victims of the attack, in which a truck plowed through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin killing 12 people. However, markets will be functional from Wednesday with additional security.

The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs urged Americans in Berlin to inform their families of their safety.

UPDATE: 4:05 a.m. EST — The driver of the truck, which plowed through a crowded Christmas market in Berlin killing 12 people, is a Pakistani national who entered Germany via the Balkan route earlier this year, local media reports said Tuesday, citing unnamed authorities.

The suspect is a 23-year-old named Naved B., German tabloid Bild reported Tuesday.

Police raided an asylum center at the disused Tempelhof airport in the German capital where the suspect was reported to have been registered.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will issue a statement on the Berlin attack later Tuesday.

UPDATE: 2:52 a.m. EST — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Tuesday ordered for flags across the country to fly at half-mast following Monday’s tragedy in which a truck barreled through a crowded Christmas market in Berlin killing at least 12 people and wounding 48.

Oliver Malchow, the head of Germany’s police trade union, told local media it would never be possible to have “100% security” at all of the country’s 2,500 Christmas markets that take place “at least twice a week” in every German town.

A police press conference is scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. Tuesday, local time, (7 a.m. EST) during which more details are expected to be made public. A 6 p.m., a vigil will take place at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church outside which the tragedy occurred. The truck has been removed from the scene of the crash for further investigations.

Meanwhile, Mayor Philippe Pradal of Nice in France, where 86 people were killed when a Tunisia-born man plowed through a crowded beachfront in the city on Bastille Day in July, mused on the similarities between the Nice attack and the latest crash. “Same modus operandi. Same blind violence. Same hatred of happy people. More than ever, fight against obscurantism,” he tweeted.

Original story:

At least 12 people were killed and 48 injured when a truck plowed through a popular Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday in what German officials said could be a terrorist attack.

Authorities arrested a suspect about a mile and a half away from the scene at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and are investigating his alleged links to the attack. The German police are yet to release information on the suspect’s identity.

Investigators found a dead Polish man inside the tractor trailer but ruled him out as the vehicle’s driver. The truck — fitted with Polish license plates — barreled into the crowded Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, in the western part of central Berlin, at around 8 p.m. Monday (2 p.m. EST). A witness told CNN the truck seemed to be traveling at around 40 miles per hour. Authorities are investigating the incident on the assumption that the truck was deliberately driven into the market.

“We heard a loud bang,” Emma Rushton, a tourist, said. “We started to see the top of an articulated truck, a lorry ... just crashing through the stalls, through people.”

The latest attack is reminiscent of the Bastille Day attack, in which a truck plowed through a crowded beach front in Nice, France, killing 86 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Nice attack.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said the motive behind the crash was still clear, adding: “I don't want to use the word ‘attack’ yet although a lot points to that.”

“There is a psychological effect in the whole country of the choice of words here, and we want to be very, very cautious and operate close to the actual investigation results, not with speculation,” he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been briefed about the attack and is in touch with the interior secretary and the governing mayor of Berlin. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “deeply shaken” on hearing the news of the attack.

The White House issued a statement Monday condemning “what appears to have been a terrorist attack.”

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called the crash an act of terrorism, adding “the civilized world must change thinking” when it comes to such attacks.