The 25-tonne truck careered through the market, crushing stalls before finally coming to a half at the side of a road. Another person, who reportedly ran away from the scene, was arrested by police and is the suspected driver of the truck.
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Despite being flooded with more than 500 tips after the attack, Berlin police cast their eyes to a new suspect after finding traces of DNA and an immigration papers in the wrecked tractor-trailer.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said that “there is no doubt” that the crash was an intentional attack.
Federal prosecutors said the man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany past year as an asylum-seeker, denied involvement in the attack that killed 12 people and injured almost 50 others.
De Maiziere said a meeting of interior ministers of federal states agreed to keep the markets open and evaluate possible additional security on a case-by-case basis.
Around 2,500 Christmas markets across Germany are popular attractions and are visited by millions of people during the last months of the year.
The attack happened at 8am Monday (local time) when a truck was “deliberately driven into a crowd of people working at and shopping at a Christmas market in Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz”.
One official quoted by Bild newspaper said it appeared from the post-mortem examination that the driver had survived up to the attack and was shot dead when the truck came to a halt. The truck was registered in Poland, and police said it was believed to be stolen from a building site there.
Another passenger in the truck died on the spot, police said.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
The “dangerous criminal” who is responsible for the attack remains at large said the German police on Tuesday.
Investigators quoted by German media say there is evidence that, despite being stabbed, Mr Urban wrestled the driver for the steering wheel.
Senior AfD member Marcus Pretzell on Twitter blamed Ms Merkel for the attack.
German police said Tuesday they were treating as “a probable terrorist attack” the killing of 12 people when a speeding lorry cut a bloody swathe through a Berlin Christmas market. But now police are questioning whether they have the right man: The man in custody denies involvement, and cops found no traces of his DNA or blood in the truck.
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The incident bears a strong resemblance to the attack in Nice, France, in July which a Tunisian-born French resident drove a 19-ton truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day, murdering 86 people and injuring hundreds more. Following this report, the USA -based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the online activity of militant groups, said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
