The assailant first injured the Polish driver of the truck with a knife during a skirmish in the cab and drove the truck about 80 yards through a packed crowd at the market, police said.
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Earlier Die Welt newspaper cited a high-ranking security source as saying that the Pakistani refugee was not involved in the attack.
They said witnesses were able to follow the truck’s driver from the scene but quickly lost track of him in the chaotic aftermath.
Police subsequently said nine had been killed and that one person has been detained over the incident – which comes less than a week before Christmas.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière announced that Tuesday would be a national mourning day in Germany and that all flags would be flown at half-mast.
The truck had a Polish licence plate, police said.
“I could hear screaming and then we all froze”. O’Neill said there was “blood and bodies everywhere”.
Lukasz Urban arrived in the German capital early in the morning after driving from northern Italy with a cargo of steel.
No. The Islamic State did not name Amri when it said Tuesday that a “soldier” committed the deadly attack.
Berlin police tweeted a warning for residents to be “alert” as the prospect of the attacker remaining at large became a serious concern. The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle may have been hijacked. German authorities prepared to deport him but weren’t able to do so because he didn’t have valid identity papers, Jaeger said. “I can vouch for him”. “In light of the events in Berlin we have considered our security plans with the Metropolitan Police and they continue to be robust and appropriate”. “We also thought it would be safer than Paris”.
The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have called on followers to use trucks to attack crowds.
Five people were wounded in an axe rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria.
The arrival of 890,000 refugees previous year has polarized Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat.
Meanwhile, counter-terrorism authorities have revealed they warned of the risk that refugees could be targeted by extremist recruiters weeks before the carnage in Berlin. 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.
During a Monday night call with Merkel, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed condolences “for the horrific apparent terrorist attack”, the White House said.
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The man was later released from custody, according to a German federal prosecutor.
