Berlin Police assumes lorry crash a `probable terrorist attack`

Berlin`s police force said Tuesday it was treating the deadly crash of a lorry into a Christmas market crowd as `a probable terrorist attack`.

Berlin: Berlin`s police force are assuming that the deadly crash of a lorry into a Christmas market crowd was a "probable terrorist attack".

The police said in a Twitter message it was carefully investigating the "probable terrorist attack" that killed 12 people and wounded dozens more Monday evening.

At least 12 persons died and 48 injured after a truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital city of Berlin on Monday night.

A suspect, reportedly an Afghan or Pakistani national who arrived in Germany in February, was arrested 2 km from the site and was being interrogated, The Guardian reported.

Police said a man found dead inside the truck, identified as a Polish citizen, was not the person who drove it into the market.

According to the Polish company that owns the truck, its driver was unreachable since Monday afternoon.

Pictures from the scene showed Christmas decorations protruding from the smashed windscreen of the black truck. In the aftermath, it was resting lopsided on the pavement with a mangled Christmas tree beneath its wheels. 

The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That attack was claimed by Islamic State.

World leaders condemn

US President-elect Donald Trump condemned what he called an attack, linking it to "Islamist terrorists" before German police officials had said who was responsible. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her grief for the victims while President Joachim Gauck said he was shocked by the "awful evening".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her grief for the victims while President Joachim Gauck said he was shocked by the "awful evening".