A 25-tonne lorry charged through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin last night, killing 12 people and injuring almost 50 in a suspected terrorist attack.
The articulated vehicle, with a Polish numberplate, turned off an adjoining street and tore through the market, smashing wooden stalls and knocking down tourists and families as they enjoyed festive food and wine shortly after 8pm.
Witnesses said that the lorry was travelling at up to 40mph before it came to a stop with a loud bang on the far side of the market, ending up by a Christmas tree in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church.
The driver fled but was arrested by police just over a mile away from the scene close to Berlin’s Victory Column monument. A Polish man was found dead in the passenger seat in the cabin and police said last night that he appeared to have died “as a result of the accident”. A young man who saw the incident said: “The driver wore a mask. He got out of the cab and as he ran off he tore off his mask.”
The German daily newspaper Die Welt said on its website this morning that the driver is believed to be a 23-year-old Pakistani migrant who had arrived as a refugee to Germany on December 31 last year. German media, citing security sources, named the suspect as “Naved B”. Police said that the dead passenger was Polish, raising fears that the lorry had been hijacked.
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Berlin police announced this morning that the crash was not an accident, but an intentional act, and a “probable terrorist attack”.
Mike Fox, who was visiting Berlin from Birmingham, said that the vehicle had missed him by about three yards as it drove into the market. “It was definitely deliberate,” he said, adding that he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and that other people were trapped under the wrecked stalls.
Emma Rushton, a Briton on her first trip to the city, said that she was drinking mulled wine when the lorry rushed past “at speed” a few feet away. “We heard a really loud bang . . . and then we saw the articulated vehicle going through people and through the stalls and just pulling everything down. And then everything went dark,” she told Sky News. If she had been a few steps closer, she and her friends would have been caught up in the carnage.
“There was lots of screaming; there were loads of people yelling. The store that we bought our mulled wine from was completely crushed and there were people tearing off the wooden panels to get the people [out],” she said.
The market is the biggest in west Berlin and attracts tourists because of its central location, near the department stores of Kurfürstendamm, one of the city’s main boulevards.
Die Welt reported that the German security services had received warnings in recent days of a possible attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Tension in the city remained high and an explosion was heard before midnight at the stricken market after police destroyed a suspicious bag near by.
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The lorry belonged to a Polish delivery company, according to police. The company said that the vehicle had left Poland in the afternoon, heading for Berlin, but that contact with the driver had been lost at 4pm local time.
Polish television is reporting that a man found dead in the lorry had died of stab wounds.
“The suspected driver of the lorry has been arrested and is being questioned. We got descriptions of the driver who fled and we arrested a person based on the description,” Thomas Neuendorf, a police spokesman, said at the scene.
Police used Twitter to urge local people to stay in their homes. “There is no indication that there is any more danger in the city,” Mr Neuendorf said. “We’re checking whether it was an accident, a mistake or an attack — we don’t have clear indications.” In a sign that the authorities suspected a terrorist attack, the government said that the federal prosecutor was taking over the investigation. Islamic State previously urged sympathisers to use vehicles as weapons.
The incident recalled an attack in France in July when Tunisian-born Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a 19-tonne truck along the promenade in Nice, running down people who had gathered to watch fireworks on Bastille Day. Eighty-six people were killed in the Isis-inspired plot and more than 400 were injured.
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The attacker’s identity could prove pivotal for Angela Merkel’s chances of winning a fourth term next autumn: the far-right Alternative for Germany has been fiercely critical of her open-door policy on migrants.
Michael Müller, Berlin’s mayor, said of the deaths: “It’s terrible to see this and to know that so many came to have a pleasant time.”
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, tweeted: “My thoughts and condolences are with the people of Germany following tonight’s terrible tragedy in Berlin.”
Donald Trump, the US president-elect, said: “Terrorists and their regional and worldwide networks must be eradicated from the face of the Earth, a mission we will carry out with all freedom-loving partners.”
A number of vigils in Berlin have been planned for today, starting at about 11am, when members of the public will be invited to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church to sign a book of condolence. Mass will be held at the St Hedwig’s cathedral in central Berlin at midday.
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German media reported this morning that police commandos raided a hangar at the defunct Tempelhof airport, which is being used as a refugee centre, in southern Berlin at 7.45am.