12 dead as Truck crash into Christmas Market in Berlin
A truck crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, Germany killing 12 people and injuring 48 others an incidence which German government says looked like an attack.
Police in Germany stated that one of the suspects in the car attack had been arrested while the other passenger from the truck had died as it crashed into people gathered around wooden huts.
The nationality of the suspected driver, who fled the crash scene and was later arrested, was unclear, police stated.
Police later stated that 48 injured people were brought to Berlin hospitals.
The incident occured at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in the heart of former West Berlin.
German media cited local security sources as saying that there was evidence suggesting the arrested suspect was from Afghanistan or Pakistan and entered Germany in February as a refugee.
“We heard a loud bang,” Emma Rushton, a tourist, told CNN. “We started to see the top of an articulated truck, a lorry … just crashing through the stalls, through people.”
Rushton stated the truck seemed to be travelling at about 65 kph.
Pictures from the scene showed Christmas decorations protruding from the smashed windscreen of the black truck. In the aftermath, it was resting lopsided on the pavement with a mangled Christmas tree beneath its wheels.
Berlin police stated on Twitter they were investigating leads that the truck had been stolen from a construction site in Poland.
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