Berlin crash suspected to be a terror attack

The Berlin police said early Tuesday that the killing of at least 12 people and the wounding of dozens more when a truck plowed through a Christmas market on Monday night was “a suspected terrorist attack.”

In a statement, the police added that they were working swiftly and with “necessary care” in the investigation.

The truck jumped the sidewalk about 8 pm near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, whose jagged spire, a reminder of the bombings during World War II, is one of the most symbolic sites in Berlin.

The police said they later arrested a man near the scene who was suspected of driving the truck, which had been stolen from a worksite in Poland about a two-hour drive from Berlin. A passenger, identified by the authorities as a Polish national, was found dead in the cab.

There was no claim of responsibility, but the episode immediately evoked the attack in July in Nice, France, when a truck driver ran over and killed more than 80 people during Bastille Day celebrations.

The impact scattered people who just moments before had been shopping and drinking mulled wine amid stands that sell Christmas gifts, sweets and sausages. At least 45 people were injured, including several with severe wounds, the authorities said.

“People were sitting holding their heads, there were pools of blood on the floor,” said Emma Rushton, a British tourist, who was visiting Berlin for the first time and who watched as the truck crushed a stand right in front of her.

Though it was never clear if the driver in Nice was linked to the Islamic State, the group’s exhortations to run over its enemies seemed to have inspired the killer, who had a long history of disturbed and violent behaviour.

If the Berlin attack turns out to have been carried out by someone who entered Germany as a migrant, it could produce yet another political crisis for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel has been sharply criticised for allowing one million migrants to enter the country, often without any screening or background checks.

Heiko Maas, Germany’s justice minister, said that federal prosecutors had taken over the investigation of the episode, an indication of that the authorities suspected terrorism.

Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s top security official, initially insisted it could have been either an attack or an accident. And Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister, refused to use the word “attack” in an interview with ARD public broadcaster.

© 2016 The New York Times News Service