Angela Merkel has vowed to prevent Germany’s way of life being shattered by terrorism as she condemned the killing of 12 people in the attack on a Christmas market.
The German chancellor, who has been criticised for her open-border refugee policy, said that she was appalled and shaken by the attack. It was “repulsive” that the suspect may be a refugee, she said.
“I know that for all of us it would be particularly hard to bear if it were confirmed that it was a person who had sought shelter and asylum in Germany,” Mrs Merkel said.
“This would be especially repulsive to the many, many Germans who are involved daily in helping refugees and the many people who really need our protection and who are trying to integrate into our country.”
She added: “I know that we can’t and don’t want to go without all this, the Christmas markets, the pleasant hours with family and friends outside in our squares. Even if it may seem hard in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany: free, together and open.”
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Germany’s regional interior ministers decided in a telephone conference not to cancel any of the 2,500 Christmas markets being held in towns and villages across the country.
The attacker is believed to be a 23-year-old Pakistani refugee named Naved B, who had been registered in Germany in February, according to the security forces.
He is believed to have hijacked a Polish truck, killed the driver and tore through one of Berlin’s busiest Christmas markets at 8pm on Monday.
He fled but police arrested him a few kilometres away after an eyewitness pursued him through the Tiergarten park.
At 3am this morning, police raided the refugee shelter where Naved B had been living in a hangar in Berlin’s defunct Tempelhof airport.
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“There were maybe 100 police. I was going to the toilet and they shouted at me to go back to my room,” Jumakhan, 20, a refugee from Afghanistan, told The Times.
Police detained two people in the raid.
Some 1,000 refugees are housed in dismal containers inside the airport building.
“There are people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria here,” said Zakaria Mohammadia, 23, a refugee from Aleppo. “The Pakistanis and the Arabs don’t talk much. One guy here said he recognised him.”
Berlin has been criticised for failing to find better accommodation for the refugees, some of whom have been living at the site and other mass hostels like it for a year.