Germany stepped up security around its famous Christmas markets this year because they were considered to be targets for terrorist attacks.
Extra police and guards were deployed at the major city markets and bollards, barriers and other measures to stop vehicle attacks were put in place.
This month a 12-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of planning to attack the Christmas market in the western city of Ludwigshafen. His arrest came after the discovery of a suspected nail bomb in a backpack and two crude incendiary devices.
Despite the precautions, the attacker who crashed a lorry into the market at Breitscheidplatz yesterday proved again how difficult it is for the security agencies to stop low-tech attacks.
The heightened state of alert had been circulated across Europe with warnings to tourists planning to visit markets in the run-up to Christmas.
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This month the Foreign Office revised its travel advice for Britons visiting Germany, saying that there was a “high threat from terrorism”, adding: “You should remain vigilant.”
Last night’s carnage comes after the attack in Nice in July when a killer inspired by Islamic State drove into crowds celebrating Bastille Day. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian living in France, killed 86 people and injured more than 400 when he drove a 19-tonne lorry along the Promenade des Anglais before he was shot dead by police. Prosecutors said that he had planned the attack for months.
The Berlin atrocity also has echoes of a blueprint laid down by al-Qaeda terrorists 16 years ago when they plotted to detonate a truck bomb at the Christmas market beneath the steps of Strasbourg cathedral. British intelligence alerted French and German authorities when they intercepted a call to the suspected paymaster in London.
Less than a year before 9/11 made al-Qaeda a household name, raids in France, Germany and Britain foiled the attack. The main plotters were arrested in Frankfurt, where police found bombmaking materials.
The terrorists learnt from the failure of their Strasbourg plot that attempts to acquire explosives and money could leave them exposed. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged followers through its Inspire magazine to adopt simpler tactics, dispensing with the bomb and using the lorry as a weapon. Islamic State has repeatedly urged its sympathisers to use cars and lorries against western civilians.
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Europol, the EU police intelligence agency, has said that lone attackers or small cells are using “the weapons that are most easily available”. It added: “Lone actors have used knives, axes and machetes, cars and even a truck to commit their acts. The effectiveness, ease of use and access of these weapons will continue to be relevant.”
The report said that the attack in Nice was carried out with such simple means that it was “difficult to predict or foresee, let alone prevent”. One veteran security official said: “There was a time when we worried about truck bombs, now we have to worry about trucks.”
Europol said that Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands were top of the list for Isis threats in Europe. Officials say that the danger is heightened by Isis’s troubles on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, which are expected to lead to foreign fighters returning to Europe and carrying out attacks.