Truck plows into Berlin market in suspected attack, 9 killed

A truck crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing at least nine people and injuring several more in what was likely a terror attack, police said.

The truck crashed into the market, filled with holiday shoppers and revelers, outside the capital’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

AP Television footage showed a large Scania truck with its windshield smashed out on the sidewalk alongside the market, with a swarm of ambulances nearby. A large Christmas tree with a gold star on top was toppled over nearby in the street.

“There have been at least nine deaths,” a police spokesman told AFP.

“There are at least 50 injured… some seriously. Some are dead,” she said after a driver drove up the pavement of the market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening.

“We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it,” the spokesman said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry was in touch with German police to learn more about the situation, a spokesperson in Jerusalem said.

Police said they arrested a suspect believed to be the driver of the truck near the scene. They did not give any details about the suspect’s identity.

A passenger who was with the suspect was found dead, German police said.

“A man who was apparently driving the truck was detained,” a police spokeswoman told AFP. “The person riding in the vehicle is dead.”

Polish media reported the truck had been registered in Poland to a company in Gdansk. The wife of the driver told Polish news that she had not spoken to her husband since noon.

Police and rescue workers swarmed the area after the incident blocking access to the market itself, and firetrucks and ambulances whizzed by.

Witnesses described a scene reminiscent of an attack in Nice, France, on July 14 when a large truck drove through a Bastille Day crowd, killing 86 and injuring hundreds.

Witness Mike Fox told The Associated Press at the scene that the large truck missed him by only about three meters as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.

“It was definitely deliberate,” said the tourist from Birmingham, England.

He said he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and that others were trapped under Christmas stands.

In the wake of the suspected attack, prominent Berlin Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal expressed his condolences and said he was working with police to determine if there were any Jews or Israelis among the victims of the suspected attack.

“It’s currently unclear whether there are any Jewish or Israeli victims, but I am in constant contact with Berlin police as they identify the victims,” Teichtal said in a statement Monday night. “We are also working to contact the Jews and Israelis who were believed to be at the scene at the time.”

The crash comes less than a month after a US State Department calling for caution in markets and other public places, saying extremist groups including Islamic State and al-Qaeda were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events.”

Islamic State and al-Qaeda have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack public places.

Germany has been shaken this year by several assaults claimed by the Islamic State group and carried out by asylum-seekers.

An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 people in the same state six days later.

In another case, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl in February stabbed a police officer in the neck with a kitchen knife, wounding him badly, allegedly on IS orders.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.