Authorities believe deadly market rampage was likely by asylum seeker, Merkel says

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (centre) with Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller (left) and the country's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere arrive on December 20, 2016 at the site where a truck had crashed into a Christmas market near the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church) in Berlin the previous night. PHOTO | MAURIZIO GAMBARINI | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Police were questioning a suspect, described by media as a 23-year-old man from Pakistan or Afghanistan who had arrived via the so-called Balkan route early this year and was staying at a Berlin refugee shelter.

  • Ms Merkel said if it was confirmed that the man at the wheel had been part of the refugee influx to the country, this would be “particularly sickening in relation to the many, many Germans who are involved every day in helping refugees”.

BERLIN, Tuesday

Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that German authorities believe a deadly rampage by a lorry driver at a Berlin Christmas market was a terrorist attack likely committed by an asylum seeker.

Police were questioning a suspect, described by media as a 23-year-old man from Pakistan or Afghanistan who had arrived via the so-called Balkan route early this year and was staying at a Berlin refugee shelter.

Ms Merkel said if it was confirmed that the man at the wheel had been part of the refugee influx to the country, this would be “particularly sickening in relation to the many, many Germans who are involved every day in helping refugees”.

Twelve people were killed and almost 50 wounded when the truck tore through the crowd on Monday evening, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims, in scenes reminiscent of July’s deadly attack in the French Riviera city of Nice.

The mangled truck came to a rest with its windscreen smashed, a trail of destruction and screaming victims in its wake, with Christmas trees toppled on their side, days before the country’s most important festival.

“I know it will be especially hard for us to take if it is confirmed that the person who committed this attack sought protection and asylum in Germany,” said Ms Merkel, who was later set to visit the scene.

One survivor, Australian Trisha O’Neill, recalled the horror of “this huge black truck speeding through the markets crushing so many people”, with “blood and bodies everywhere”.

“It wasn’t an accident,” said another visitor, Briton Emma Rushton, who was enjoying a glass of mulled wine when the festive scene was shattered by a loud crash and screams.

“We heard a really loud bang and saw some of the Christmas lights to our left starting to be pulled down,” she told Sky news.

“Then we saw the articulated vehicle going through people and through the stalls and just pulling everything down and then everything went dark.”

Police detained the man believed to have deliberately mowed the truck, which was loaded with steel beams, for 80 metres into the popular tourist spot near the capital’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in Germany in February, according to unnamed security sources cited by DPA news agency.

The Die Welt daily named him as Navid B., born on January 1, 1993 in the Pakistani city of Turbat although other reports said he may be an Afghan.

Local newspapers reported that after the truck driver left the cabin, a man followed him on foot and used his mobile phone to stay in touch with police.