Merkel Says Berlin Truck Crash Is Believed to Be Terror Attack Twelve killed and 48 injured as truck plunges into crowded Christmas market By Anton Troianovski, Zeke Turner and Ruth Bender

Posted By on December 20th, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/multiple-dead-after-truck-drove-on-sidewalk-at-christmas-market-in-berlin-police-say-1482177633

BERLIN—German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that the deadly truck crash at a Berlin Christmas market was believed to have been a terrorist attack.

She said Monday’s attack, in which a black semitrailer plunged into crowd of holiday revelers at the market in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church killing 12 people and injuring 48 others, may have been perpetrated by a migrant who had sought asylum in Germany.

“I know it would be especially hard to bear for all of us if it should be confirmed that the person who committed this act sought protection and asylum in Germany,” Ms. Merkel told a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin.

 “This would be especially despicable toward the many, many Germans who are daily engaged in helping refugees, and toward the many, many people who truly need this protection and strive to integrate themselves into our country.”

Ms. Merkel urged Germans not to give in to fear. “We do not want to live paralyzed by fear of evil,” she said.

Authorities on Tuesday questioned the sole suspect in a truck assault. The suspect in the truck attack is from Pakistan, a person familiar with the investigation said. The man was born in the 1990s, the person said, noting it wasn’t yet clear whether the man entered Germany as a refugee as some German media reported.

What We Know

The black semitrailer with Polish license plates drove onto the sidewalk at the market at about 8 p.m. on Monday, barreling more than 200 feet, the police said, citing witness reports. They driver fled, the said.

Soon after, police apprehended the suspected driver about a mile away, at the Victory Column in Berlin’s sprawling Tiergarten park.

Authorities said early Tuesday morning that the truck was driven into the market on purpose. “Our investigators are working on the assumption that the truck was steered deliberately into the crowd,” the police wrote on the force’s official Twitter account.

Berlin asked its dozens of Christmas markets, a major tourist draw, to close Tuesday out of respect for the victims. But overall, the top security officials in Germany’s 16 state governments agreed in a telephone conference Tuesday morning that “Christmas markets and other large-scale events should continue to take place,” the Interior Ministry said.

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