Published: 07:56 EST, 20 December 2016 | Updated: 10:53 EST, 20 December 2016
German authorities will not name the Christmas market terror suspect because of strict 'privacy laws' in the country.
Suspects in criminal cases are often only identified in German media by their first name followed by the first letter of their surname.
Police last night arrested a man named only as Naved B, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker, after a lorry ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, claiming 12 lives.
However, there are reports in Germany that police now believe he was not the perpetrator and that the true attacker is 'still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage.'
In line with the country's privacy laws, German authorities will not fully name anyone they arrest over the atrocity.
It is not the first example of full names being withheld during criminal cases in the country.
Last month, only first names were released as two Syrian men, Kamel T.H.J. and Azad R., were charged with membership in a terrorist organisation on allegations they fought with a militant Islamist groups in their homeland.
A month earlier, a similar tactic was employed on the arrest of suspected ISIS airport bomb plotter Jaber al-Bakr.
The 22-year-old, had built 'a virtual bomb-making lab' in a flat in Chemnitz and was thought to have planned an attack against either one of Berlin's two airports or a transport hub in his home state of Saxony, security sources said.
Police last night arrested a man named only as Naved B, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker, after a lorry ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, claiming 12 lives. But there are reports police may have arrested the wrong man
Truck drove into busy square in Berlin today killing nine and injuring 50 people
Eyewitnesses say it was deliberate and police are investigating if it was terrorist
But the driver's cousin said he would never hurt anyone and lost contact at 4pm
There is speculation man arrested was hijacker and dead man in cab was Polish
James Dunn For Mailonline
Published: 16:59 EST, 19 December 2016 | Updated: 19:18 EST, 19 December 2016
The truck that killed nine people as it ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin had been stolen from a construction site, police revealed.
The news comes after the owner of the Polish firm that owns the truck revealed that they had lost contact hours before the tragedy during a radio interview.
Ariel Zielinski, who is also the man's cousin, said the driver would never hurt anyone and had been due to make a short stop off to unload his cargo in Berlin.
It was carrying steel from Italy, which would have made it even more deadly as it careered through the square.
Mr Zielinski is now being questioned by Polish police, according to local media.
Nine were killed and 50 more injured when the truck careered through the busy square today in a massacre similar to the one in Nice that left 86 dead in July.
Police believe it could be an act of terrorism and arrested one man near the scene, while another was found dead in the cab of the Polish-registered truck.
Various eyewitnesses claimed that the act was deliberate after the truck did not slow down as it drove through people at around 40mph.
It is not known if the man found dead in the lorry was killed before or during the crash, and police have refused yet to release the identity or nationality.
There was speculation that the man killed in the cab was the Polish driver, while the man arrested could have hijacked the vehicle then escaped.
Although police have so far refused to confirm any details of the case, which has been passed to the state prosecutor for investigation.
The vehicle mounted the pavement before speeding through a crowd of shoppers, tearing through stalls as it travelled the entire length of the market on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in west Berlin.
Police in Berlin are now using Twitter to urge locals to stay in their homes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is 'mourning the dead'.
The vehicle left a trail of devastation in its wake, in a chilling echo of the deadly terror attack in the French city of Nice in July - and comes just one hour after the Russian ambassador was shot dead in Ankara.
Horrifying pictures and videos from Berlin show emergency services racing to the scene and the devastating aftermath as the lorry ploughed through the market.
Terrified market-goers tweeted horrifying images and spoke from the scene of the incident.
Mike Fox, a tourist from Birmingham, said the large truck missed him by about three meters as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.
'It was definitely deliberate,' he said.
Mr Fox said he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and said others were trapped under Christmas stands.
British tourist Emma Rushton tweeted from the scene: 'Lorry just ploughed through Christmas market in #berlin.
'There is no road nearby. People crushed. I am safe. I am safe'.
She saw the lorry rush past her at speed and said it could not have been an accident.
She told Sky News she only missed being caught in the chaos because she had climbed up some steps to take a seat.
Ms Rushton said: 'The stall that we bought our mulled wine from was completely crushed. People were tearing off wooden panels to get out.'
She added: 'It was not an accident. It was going 40mph, it was in the middle of the market. There was no way that it could have come off the road and it showed no signs of slowing down.'
'I heard a big noise and then I moved on the Christmas market and saw much chaos...many injured people,' Jan Hollitzer, deputy editor in chief of Berliner Morgenpost, told CNN. 'It was really traumatic.'
Richard Clarkson, from Brighton, told the Irish Independent he was at a bar called Irish Bar with his friends on the street near were the incident happened.
One of his friends heard a bang. He said: 'I just walked out and I saw the truck, the windscreen was broken, I didn't see any bodies they were very quick to cover them up I think.'
'The word terrorist is being thrown around a lot at the moment and people seem scared.'
Comment found elsewhere:
According to German press, the Polish driver found inside the truck had been previously shot dead by the Islamic (pakistani) hijacker. The Polish driver was a Catholic speeding home from Italy to their beloved wife and children for Christmas while he was hijacked.
Today there were terror attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany - and it is only getting worse. The civilized world must change thinking!
Retweets 36,279
Likes 99,297
3:21 PM - 19 Dec 2016
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Rescue workers push a person on a stretcher after a truck plowed through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly Christmas market truck crash in Berlin, a report says.
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force tweeted that the terror group was taking credit for the incident, which left at least 12 people dead and more than 50 injured at major public market Monday.
Using encrypted technology, the group said they found several jihadist Twitter accounts that had been claiming responsibility for the alleged attack, according to the Washington Times.
The driver of the truck has been apprehended by police and another person that was riding inside the cab at the time of the crash is dead.
The incident — which is being investigated as an act of terrorism — is very similar the the Bastille Day terrorist attack that unfolded in the coastal French city of Nice over the summer.
The driver of the truck in the July 14 attack — later identified as a Tunisia native who pledged allegiance to ISIS — mowed down dozens of people gathered along the tiny Promenade des Anglais.
He wound up killing 84, including 10 children, and injuring more than 200 others.
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.” (Quran 8:12)
It sure is working.
Terror has gripped Westerners, who have taken their freedom for granted and appear more concerned with “Islamophobia ” than with taking serious steps to deal with the jihad terror threat:
Angela Merkel, with her “we can do this” narrative that all Germans must accept or be charged with “bigotry” and “neo-Nazism,” was forewarned by the US State Department which said that it had “credible information” that the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda were planning jihad attacks and focusing on the “upcoming holiday season.” Both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have been plotting Christmas market jihad massacres.
“BERLIN TERROR ATTACK: Angela Merkel was WARNED of Christmas massacre just WEEKS ago”, By Tom Parfitt, UK Express, December 19, 2016:
At least nine people have been killed after a lorry ploughed into a festive market in the German capital – with more than 50 others injured.
But in late November, the US State Department warned of a “heightened risk of terror attacks” at events marking the Christian holiday across Europe.
It said it had “credible information” that Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda were planning attacks and focusing on the “upcoming holiday season”.
The department specifically warned American travellers to exercise caution at “holiday festivals, events and outdoor markets”.
European intelligence services were also aware of the threat of possible attacks across the continent in the run-up to Christmas.
The Foreign Office told British travellers to Germany to “remain vigilant” at “Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds”.
A UK security source recently told the Mirror that festive markets and shopping centres could be in ISIS’ sights.
They said: “The entire continent is vulnerable to attack as we have seen in France, Germany and Belgium but particularly in the run-up to Christmas.
“It is a Christian period of festivities, bring together large crowds of soft target civilians and will attract attention from those who wish to inflict harm.”
It is understood tonight’s incident took place at a market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
Police spokesman Winfried Wenzel told ZDF public television that a man believed to be the driver of the truck had been arrested near the scene.
Briton Emma Rushton, who was in the market, saw the lorry rush past her at speed and said it could not have been an accident.
The tourist said she only missed being caught in the chaos because she had climbed up some steps to take a seat.
She added: “It was not an accident. It was going 40mph, it was in the middle of the market.
“There was no way that it could have come off the road and it showed no signs of slowing down.”
Police tweeted to urge people to stay at home and refrain from spreading rumours, adding that officers were working at full speed
Geert Wilders, the Dutch leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) has long been a vocal critic of the German Chancellor’s immigration policy.
Today he tweeted an image of Mrs Merkel with blood on her hands and her clothes splattered with blood.
Meanwhile, members of Angela Merkel’s own party are turning on her and calling for martial law. Politicians have “declared war” against Merkel’s open-door policy on immigration.
Klaus Bouillon of Merkel’s CDU party told Saarland radio: “We must state that we are in a state of war, although some people who want to see only the good can not see.”
Meanwhile, the “Chief executive of the populist right wing Alternative for Germany party, which is widely expect to obliterate Mrs Merkel’s party in next year’s elections, say the country is now no longer safe.”
The Berlin jihadi terror suspect remains armed and “at large” as the man taken into police custody was the “wrong man,” according to police. Authorities don’t even know if the jihadist has accomplices who are working with him.
“Geert Wilders tweets image of Merkel with hands covered in blood after Berlin attack,” by Katie Mansfield, Express, December 20, 2016:
Twelve people died and 48 were injured when a lorry ploughed into the market in the Berlin terror attack last night.
A Pakistani asylum seeker was arrested but has denied being responsible, and police in Germany have admitted the person behind it may still be armed and at large.
The 23-year-old, named Navid B, arrived in Germany last year as one million migrants entered the country under Angela Merkel’s open-door policy.
Geert Wilders, the Dutch leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) has long been a vocal critic of the German Chancellor’s immigration policy.
Today he tweeted an image of Mrs Merkel with blood on her hands and her clothes splattered with blood.
The image was retweeted more than 1,000 times and liked by at least 1,500 social media accounts.
Mr Wilders also posted a tweet linking the German Chancellor, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and other government leaders with the refugee crisis.
He said: “Merkel, Rutte and all other cowardly government leaders have let in the tsunami of Islam asylum seekers and terror with their open border policies.”
It comes after former recipe leader Nigel Farage came under fire for linking the attack with Mrs Merkel.
Mr Farage posted: “Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.”
The post sparked an angry backlash, with the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox accusing Mr Farage using the Berlin Christmas market attack to score political points…..
Now Playing Fallout from truck attack on Christmas market in Berlin
The man believed to have driven a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin Monday evening had come to Germany as a refugee from Pakistan this past February, multiple German media outlets reported.
The attack killed at least 12 people and left 48 others injured. Officials in Germany and the United States have described the crash as an apparent terror attack, though no group has claimed responsibility.
If confirmed, the revelations are likely to heap more pressure onto German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose decision to accept waves of migrants from Africa and the Middle East has stoked controversy and unsettled Germany and Europe.
Der Tagesspiegel reported that the suspect, whom the paper said was Afghan or Pakistani, was known to police for multiple minor offenses, but had not made the radar of anti-terror authorities. The dpa press agency reported that the suspect used multiple names, making it difficult for authorities to confirm his actual identity.
The suspect was arrested about 1 1/2 miles away from the scene of the carnage at the popopular Christmas market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. A Polish passenger in the truck died at the scene as paramedics attended to him.
Several questions remained unanswered early Tuesday, including exactly how the suspect came to be behind the wheel of the large Scania truck with a Polish license plate that was carrying several tons of steel.
The truck was registered in Poland, and police said it was believed to be stolen from a building site there. They didn't give a specific location.
The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle, driven by his cousin, may have been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver around noon, and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning. "They must have done something to my driver," he told TVN24.
Die Welt newspaper reported that the truck was driven into the market crowd without its headlights on, another indication that the crash was deliberately planned.
Berlin police spokesman Winfried Wenzel told the paper that after the truck came to a stop, the suspect fled in the direction of Berlin's famous Tiergarten park. A witness followed the suspect and pointed him out to police, who arrested him near the Victory Column monument.
In total, Wenzel said the witness who alerted police followed the suspect for almost a mile and a quarter through the streets of the German capital.
"He probably wanted to find shelter in the darkness of the park," Wenzel told Die Welt.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
In Ludwigshafen, Germany, a "'strongly radicalized" 12-year-old boy "of Iraqi heritage" planted a bomb at a Christmas market at the end of November.
Previously, the festive shopping tradition of Christmas markets had become "potent symbols of freedom," with Germany's Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, urging people to stick to unserem Leben -- "our way of life."
In Birmingham, England, the Christmas market has concrete barriers installed to deter vehicular suicide bombers. According to the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, the magnitude of the terrorism faced by the UK is "unprecedented."
French security forces thwarted attacks planned for December 1, against Disneyland Paris and the Christmas market on the main thoroughfare of the French capital, the Champs-Elysée.
With a pro-Sharia (Islamic law) advocate now secretary of state in the Berlin regional senate, and other Muslims even refusing to shake the hand of the German President Joachim Gauck at events designed to promote integration, Germany's "way of life" is changing fast.
As the winter nights lengthen, an even darker shadow is falling across the run-up to the Christmas holidays in several European nations. Families in markets and shopping districts across the continent are buying presents in the knowledge that jihadists mean to target them.
On November 21, the U.S. Department of State cited a "heightened risk of terror attacks" in an advisory statement set to expire only on February 20, 2017.
"Credible information," quotes Newsweek, prompted a warning to American travellers to "exercise caution at holiday festivals, events, and outdoor markets," given planned attacks by Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Those attending "large holiday events, visiting tourist sites, using public transportation, and frequenting places of worship, restaurants, hotels, etc." were likewise urged to exercise vigilance.
"a 12-year-old boy was suspected of planning two different bomb attacks in the western German city of Ludwigshafen. The German magazine 'Focus' said he had first tried to target a Christmas market at the end of November, before placing a backpack with explosives near a high-rise building containing both city hall and a shopping center."
"The suspect was born in Germany but is of Iraqi heritage," reported NBC News, adding: "the 'strongly radicalized' youth was likely 'incited and instructed' by an 'unidentified member of ISIS.'"
This comes just two weeks after a December 2 report, Changes in Modus Operandi of Islamic State Revisited, from the European policing agency, Europol, cited the possibility of "several dozen" attacks against civilian soft targets.
In Ludwigshafen, Germany, a "'strongly radicalized" 12-year-old boy "of Iraqi heritage" planted a bomb at a Christmas market at the end of November. (Image source: Focus video screenshot)
With terrorists claiming to act in the name of ISIS already able to plan "relatively complex attacks -- including those on multiple targets -- quickly and effectively," according to the Europol report, the tactics of the battlefields of the Middle East, "such as the use of car bombs, extortion and kidnappings," may well be exported into Europe.
The credibility of such intelligence data has been further strengthened by a wave of arrests and increased troop deployments in several European countries. Germany, for instance, is associated with the ice rinks, outside stalls, and warm spiced wine of Christmas markets; an estimated 1,500 are spread across the country.
The strengthened security followed a credible bomb threat against an international soccer match on November 17, 2015, which forced the lockdown of the northern city of Hanover and a cancellation by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had planned to attend.
On the basis of attacks in the country to date, the cities of Munich, Ansbach, Berlin, Ochsenfurt, Grafing, Reutlingen and Frankfurt -- which contains the country's largest Christmas market -- are Germany's danger hotspots.
The festive shopping tradition across Europe is causing headaches, however, to security officials in several other nations.
In France, twin swoops against an alleged jihadist cell, operating from the European parliamentary city of Strasbourg and the port city of Marseilles, thwarted attacks planned for December 1, against Disneyland Paris and the Christmas market on the main thoroughfare of the French capital, the Champs-Elysée.
Reports also suggest that this anti-terror operation may have come just in time to intercept a weapons shipment.
As the Europol report explains:
"[A]utomatic firearms still seem to be the weapons of choice of terrorist cells committing large scale attacks, because of their relative ease of access, use and effectiveness. Firearms can be obtained from criminal sources, in some cases from those the terrorists already know from their own criminal pasts." (p.10)
The Daily Mirrorreports: "It is feared that the current military operation on Mosul will force Islamic State to change tactics and rather than hold ground, concentrate on attacking Europe." With returnees expected as a result of the eventual collapse of ISIS strongholds -- 2,000-2,500 jihadists originating from Europe are still said to be fighting in Iraq and Syria -- the terror group is predicted to start launching attacks against Europe from bases in Libya.
According to Jean-Charles Brisard, a leading French security expert, despite the more rigorous measures introduced by the French government as a consequence of the major attacks that have struck France since 2015, the capacity of the nation's latent ISIS networks "has not been affected." An increased presence of troops on French streets has already given the nation a paramilitary character.
Meanwhile, in Britain, the entirety of the country's elite Special Forces, the SAS, have had their leave cancelled as a consequence of undercover deployments across the nation's Christmas shopping districts.
Under Operation Temperer, run by the British Army, 5,000 troops are covertly patrolling busy streets, with police in cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham all having asked for extra assistance. Outdoor Christmas markets, originally a feature of Germany's holiday celebrations, have become increasingly popular in recent years across many British cities.
On December 11, officers armed with assault rifles raided locations in London, Burton upon Trent, and Derby, in an investigation believed to center on an ISIS plot to target Christmas markets. In "international terrorism-related" arrests, according to police sources, four men from Derby, aged 22, 27, 35 and 36, in addition to a 27-year old man from Burton upon Trent, have all been detained.
A 32-year old woman from London was also arrested "on suspicion of engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism," on behalf of the suspected ISIS terror cell. One of those being detained, according to the Daily Mail, is said to be an asylum seeker, "who may not have been in Britain for long."
In Birmingham, the Christmas market has concrete barriers installed to deter vehicular suicide bombers. According to the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service (MI6), the magnitude of the terrorism faced by the UK is "unprecedented."
"The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty," said the MI6 chief, Alex Younger, who also cited the extreme dangers posed by "hybrid attacks," in which conventional terrorism is combined with cyber-security breaches. Up to 3,000 Islamic extremists presently reside in Britain, according to Andrew Parker, head of its domestic intelligence agency, MI5.
The porosity of European borders has necessitated the need to ramp up cooperation between domestic and transnational security agencies across the continent. This makes the report issued by Europol instructive, issued as it was under the auspices of its British-born director, Robin Wainwright, as it goes to great lengths to play down the significance of cyber-attacks.
British security officers, however, have "never been under so much pressure, and the lack of agreement and effectiveness of international cooperation may well be one cause why.
Last year, the sense of nervousness was "palpable" among Germans, despite increased police deployed to Christmas markets in the states of Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hessen, North Rhine Westphalia and Thuringia.
This of course came before the New Year's Eve wave of mass sexual assaults, which targeted Cologne, Hamburg and other cities, with the police failures which allowed for the assaults recently described in a new book entitled, The Night that Changed Germany.
Previously, the festive shopping tradition of Christmas markets had become "potent symbols of freedom," with Germany's Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, urging people to stick to unserem Leben -- "our way of life."
With a pro-Sharia law advocate now secretary of state in the Berlin regional senate, and other Muslims even refusing to shake the hand of the country's president, Joachim Gauck, at events designed to promote integration, that way of life is changing fast.
The Latest: Czechs Beef up Security After Berlin Truck Crash
By The Associated Press
BERLIN December 19, 2016, 4:57 PM ET
The Latest on a truck ramming into a Berlin Christmas market (all times local):
10:50 p.m.
Czech authorities are increasing security after a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin killing at least nine people.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec tweeted that security is being beefed up at places with a high concentration of people all across the country.
Chovanec also says that more armed police officers will be on Czech streets. He says further possible security measures will be decided on Tuesday.
10:40 p.m.
Berlin police are encouraging people to use a Facebook safety check to learn if loved ones are safe after a truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market. At least nine people were killed.
The tweet linked out to Facebook, which has set up checks periodically after natural disasters and attacks around the world.
But police also asked people to refrain from spreading videos to protect privacy.
10:30 p.m.
Germany's justice minister says that federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases, are taking over the investigation after a truck rammed into a Christmas market in Berlin.
Heiko Maas didn't give further details in a post on Twitter Monday night about the "shocking news" from the capital. He added: "we are mourning with the relatives" of the victims.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says that he's in constant touch with security authorities, but didn't give any indication in a statement whether they believe the incident was an attack.
10:10 p.m.
Berlin police say that the passenger of a truck that rammed a Christmas market died at the scene.
At least nine people were killed when the truck crashed into the popular market in central Berlin on Monday evening.
Police also tweeted that a suspect was arrested near the scene, and authorities were checking if it was the driver of the truck. No further details were immediately available.
"Police spokesman Winfried Wenzel told ZDF television, however, that the suspect arrested was believed to be the truck driver"
9:45 p.m.
German police say they've arrested a suspect believed to be the driver of a truck that rammed into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, killing at least nine and causing multiple injuries.
Police spokesman Winfried Wenzel told ZDF public television that the man was arrested near the scene.
No further details were immediately available.
9:20 p.m.
Berlin police say a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin killing at least nine people, and causing multiple injuries.
Police said on Twitter that the truck rammed into the market outside the capital's popular Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening.
Bild newspaper posted a picture of a large Scania truck with its windshield smashed out on the sidewalk alongside the market.
Police say they're still investigating whether the incident was an accident or an attack.
8:35 p.m.
German media are reporting a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, causing multiple injuries.
Both the Berliner Zeitung newspaper and the Berliner Morgenpost reported the truck ran into the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening.
A photo posted by the Morgenpost showed damaged tables and stalls.
The Berliner Zeitung said police believed there to be multiple injuries, but police couldn't immediately be reached to confirm.
Both newspapers reported it wasn't immediately clear whether the incident was an accident or some kind of an attack on the market.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
The Pakistani man who was arrested after the Berlin truck attack, was released as a result of insufficient evidence, according to the prosecution. The attacker could be still at large, police said earlier.
The German Federal Prosecutor's Office has given a statement about the release of the suspect.
Holger Münch, the head of the federal criminal police office, said at a press conference on Tuesday that “we need to work on the assumption that an armed perpetrator is still at large. As a result of this we are on high alert.”
During a press conference on Tuesday, German Prosecutor General Peter Frank also expressed doubts as to whether the detained Pakistani was the perpetrator, urging investigators to begin their probe under the “assumption that the detained man was not the actual perpetrator and did not belong to the criminal group” that carried out the Berlin market attack.
Earlier Die Welt newspaper cited a high-ranking security source as saying that the Pakistani refugee was not involved in the attack.
"We have the wrong man," Die Welt cited a Berlin police official as saying. "And thus a new situation. The actual perpetrator is still at large and armed, and can inflict more damage."
For your safety! In case of suspicious observations, please don't investigate on your own - it's our job.
Earlier Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt also said investigators are unsure if the Pakistani man arrested shortly after the truck attack was actually the driver who rammed the vehicle into a crowd at the Christmas market.
"As far as I know it is in fact uncertain whether that really was the driver," he said.
Despite the heightened security alert, the preparations for New Year's Eve celebrations will continue as planned, Kandt added.
Entrances to all Christmas markets will be guarded by police officers armed with submachine guns, and security barriers will be erected.
Police urged Berlin residents "not to follow dangerous developments on your own," asking them to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement officers.
The temporary arrested suspect denies the offense.
Therefore we are particulary alert.
Please be also alert.#Breitscheidplatz
— PolizeiBerlinEinsatz (@PolizeiBerlin_E) December 20, 2016
Market Forces
by Mark Steyn Steyn on the World December 19, 2016
"On Saturday morning, I recalled a conversation over the summer with a German lady who had "found herself on the receiving end of some vibrant multicultural outreach from one of Mutti Merkel's boy charmers":
As a result, she no longer goes out after dark. She had also decided - with reluctance, because she enjoyed it - to cancel her participation in a local Christmas market, where she'd sung carols every year - in broad daylight.
"Why would you do that?" I asked.
"Because it's Christmas," she said, "and I'm worried Christmas will be a target."
And I concluded:
Christmas markets are a grand German tradition, but probably not for much longer.
Forty-eight hours later, twelve people are dead and 48 are injured (at the time of writing) because they attended a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. This BBC headline effortlessly conveys the madness of our times:
Lorry kills 12 at Christmas market
Ah, so the truck did it. So it's nothing that can't be fixed by some basic truck-control measures - like, say, licensing and registration of trucks.
The less obviously evasive responses were almost as dispiriting. An English tourist visiting from Birmingham complained that in his native city ugly bollards line the sidewalks to obstruct any similarly homicidal lorries in the vicinity. The Christkindlmarkt is a German tradition dating back to the Middle Ages: Munich's is over 700 years old. A society that can only hold three-quarters-of-a-millennium-old traditions behind an impenetrable security perimeter is a society that will soon lose those traditions. My own preference, as I've stated, is that, if free countries have to have unsightly security controls, why don't they have them around the national borders rather than around every single thing inside those borders?
"I think this is insane when I listen to people say 'oh, we're now going to have to have metal detectors in night clubs, security in nightclubs. Ok, so what happens next? They blow up a bakery, they blow up a little pastry shop, so then you're gonna have to have metal detectors to get into the pastry shop?"
"Instead of having all these individual perimeters around every Dunkin Donuts franchise or every gas station, or ever J.C. Penny, why not have just one big perimeter around the country?" Steyn concluded. "We could call it a border! And we could have, like, border security!"
But that's just crazy talk. On Fox News' top-rated Kelly File, Martha MacCallum asked two experts about the market slaughter and both of them instantly pivoted to military strikes against Isis, the need to form an Arab version of Nato, and other grand schemes. I'm all in favor of destroying Isis, but Isis is a mere symptom, not a cause. After Isis is destroyed, it'll be something else. In many parts of the world, it's already something else: al-Qa'eda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Abu Sayyaf, al-Shabaab, al-Nusra, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, al-this, al-that, al-the other...
Neither of Martha's guests so much as raised the question of why people who want to murder you for attending a Christmas market are in your country in the first place. From Reuters:
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.
Gee, that's not very grateful to the country that gave you refuge, is it? Western leaders keep assuring us that it is "a very, very small percentage" of the Muslim community who are "violent extremists". They never actually tell us what percentage it is - one per cent, point-one, point-oh-oh-oh-one - but they are agreed that it is a percentage. A percentage is a very simple concept: If it's 0.001 per cent of the Muslim community that are "violent extremists" and you have 100,000 Muslims, then, yes, it's "a very, very small percentage". If you then admit another 100,000 Muslims, then you've just doubled the number of "violent extremists". And, if you keep on doing that year in, year out, then, regardless of whether the percentage is stable, you are importing more and more people who want to kill your own citizens.
Why? What's the benefit? And why do people like that Birmingham tourist think the answer to more and more Muslims is more and more bollards? I spent most of the last year in France and other parts of Western Europe and there are soldiers everywhere - outside churches, post offices, railway stations, shopping malls, Jewish schools initially and now non-Jewish schools, topless beaches and Christmas markets... And it's not enough, and it can never be enough.
Just a few hours before twelve German families had a big bloody hole blown through them a week before Christmas, my old friend and sometime warm-up act Jonathan Kay, with his usual impeccable timing, decided to have another sneer at those simpletons who fret about where all this is heading:
Great @CBC180 discussion. Due to Mark Steyn-esque hysteria, Canadians think Canada is 17% Muslim. It's actually 3%.
Ha! What rubes, eh? As flattering as it is to be blamed for an entire nation's Islamophobia, I'd say the reason Canadians - like the French and Germans and Belgians and almost everybody else - think there are more Muslims than there are is fairly obvious: Islam punches above its weight. Even on days when they're not mowing down Christmas shoppers and assassinating Russian ambassadors - or stabbing French priests, or blowing up Belgian airports, or sexually assaulting German New Year revelers - the less incendiary news of Islam in the west nevertheless conveys an assertiveness and confidence that would still be impressive even if it were 17 per cent. By the time it actually is 17 per cent, you'll think it's 48.
Since we seem to have wound up obsessing on percentages, I suppose twelve dead Germans is likewise an insignificant percentage, and far too trivial to sophisticates to warrant "Mark Steyn-esque hysteria". But it is December 20th, and for the victims' families in five days' time that will be 100 per cent of their children or parents or boyfriends or girlfriends missing at the Christmas table. Say a prayer for them: They died because of the recklessness of a western political class that has doubled down on a mad long-shot sociopolitical experiment that can only end catastrophically."
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Re: 12/19: Truck Plows into Crowded Christmas Market in Berlin Germany
Berlin attacker Anis Amri killed in Milan
December 23, 2016
The Berlin market attacker, Anis Amri, has been shot dead by police in Milan.
The Tunisian criminal fired on police who asked him for ID during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni area in the early hours of Friday.
German authorities say fingerprints they provided have confirmed the dead man is Amri. They are trying to find out if he had accomplices.
Monday's attack on a Berlin Christmas market left 12 people dead and 49 injured.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "relieved" that the attacker had been neutralised but added that Islamist terrorism was "a recurring threat to us".
Her government's main priority was to protect German citizens, she told journalists, adding that this case had raised "many questions".
"Further changes to our laws and regulations will have to be made," Mrs Merkel said at a news conference.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State (IS) group has released a video purporting to show Amri pledging allegiance to its leader, Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He does not make any reference to the Berlin attack, which IS claimed soon afterwards. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed.
Shortly before releasing the video, IS acknowledged Amri's death in Milan.
When Italian police stopped the suspect, who was on foot, at 03:00 (02:00 GMT), he "immediately drew out a gun" and shot at the two policemen, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said.
Officer Cristian Movio was injured in the shoulder but his injuries are not life-threatening.
His junior colleague, Luca Scata, who had been in the police for just nine months, was the one who fired the shot which killed Amri.
German officials found Amri's fingerprints inside the truck that was used in Monday evening's attack.
Federal prosecutor Peter Frank said the focus of the criminal investigation into the killings now was to establish whether Amri had had a network of supporters who helped him to plan and carry out the attack or to flee.
Investigators are also trying to establish whether the gun used in the shooting in Milan is the same weapon used to kill the Polish driver of the truck, who was found dead with stab and gun wounds in the cab.
The attack took place at a busy Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the west of the German capital.
According to the Italian news agency Ansa, Anis Amri had travelled by train from France to Turin, and then taken another train to Milan.
From the central station he travelled on to Sesto San Giovanni, a working-class area.
Amri, a Tunisian national aged 24, had served a prison sentence in Italy after being convicted of vandalism, threats and theft in 2011.
He was known to Italian authorities for his violent behaviour while imprisoned.
After his release he was asked to leave the country. He later arrived in Germany where he applied for asylum in April of this year.
His application was rejected by the German authorities but they were unable to deport him to Tunisia because he had no valid identification papers.
Chancellor Merkel has talked with the Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi about the case.
"I told my Tunisian counterpart that we need to speed up the deportation process," she told reporters.
Anis Amri was named as a suspect in the Berlin attack by German federal prosecutors, and a reward of up to €100,000 (£84,000; $104,000) was offered for information leading to his arrest.
More here:
49m German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she discussed with Tunisian president the need to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers - @AlArabiya_Eng
52m Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel expresses condolences to the families of the Berlin Christmas market crash victims 'for whom this Christmas will be a Christmas of deep sorrow' - The Guardian
End of alert
1h Germany's Interior Minister Thomas De Maizière, says investigation still under way despite the death of the main suspect: 'the terrorist risk remains high' - The Guardian
End of alert
1h Islamic State's Amaq news agency have released a video of Anis Amri pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - @SkyNewsBreak
2h Germany's Federal Prosecutor Peter Frank says main focus of Germany's investigation into Berlin attack is to ascertain if Amri had accomplices - The Guardian
End of alert
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
12/19: Truck Plows into Crowded Christmas Market in Berlin Germany
Reply With Quote
In Ludwigshafen, Germany, a "'strongly radicalized" 12-year-old boy "of Iraqi heritage" planted a bomb at a Christmas market at the end of November. (Image source: Focus video screenshot)
Bookmarks