Truck Terrorism In Berlin [UPDATED: Terrorist Was A “Refugee”]

It was a bad day for terrorism. Just an hour after an Islamic extremist murdered the Russian ambassador to Turkey, an unidentified person drove a large truck into a crowd in Berlin, killing at least 9 and injuring 45 or more people.

The scene was a “Christmas market,” which NPR describes:

The truck was driven into the crowd on a sidewalk, bringing down Christmas lights and smashing stalls at the festive market near the Gedaechtniskirche, or Memorial Church, in western Berlin. …

Christmas markets such as this one are extremely popular in Germany….

“They start about four weeks before Christmas. You have to picture little huts, with all sorts of handicrafts, and they sell all kinds of foods and of course the very famous Glühwein, or mulled wine, which is the most popular drink that you would get there,” she added. “It’s just a fun place for family and friends to get together.”

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And, of course, as a Christian festival, a potential Islamic terrorist target. Authorities in Germany have not officially said that it was a terrorist attack, but the facts point in that direction. Berlin police tweeted that “the passenger of the truck, who drove to the Christmas market … died on the spot.” No indication as to how he died. Meanwhile, a “suspicious person” was arrested nearby. So it doesn’t appear to be a case where, for example, the driver of a vehicle suffers a heart attack and veers off the street.

There isn’t much point in speculating further until more information is available about the person or persons who perpetrated the apparent truck attack.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail has the latest:

A refugee is thought to have been behind the wheel of a 25-tonne articulated lorry which mowed down and killed 12 people – and injured 48 others – as it sped at 40mph through a busy Christmas market in Berlin. …

The man at the wheel – who according to German newspaper Berliner used different aliases [Ed.: How do the authorities already know this?] was of Afghan heritage [see update below] and had arrived in Germany in February – fled the scene before being arrested at a nearby zoo.

The original driver, who was transporting steel beams from Poland to Germany, was a Polish national who was found dead in the lorry’s cabin. It is thought he was hijacked.

This is actually heartbreaking. The truck was identified before facts were known about who was driving it. The owner of the firm that owns the truck was interviewed:

Last night, speaking on Polish news channel TVN24, the owner of the haulage firm Ariel Zurawski said his relative would not have committed an act of terror: “I can say hand on heart that the man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver.

“This is my cousin. I’ve known him since I was born. I can vouch for him. My scenario is that they did something to the driver – they hijacked this vehicle because it was practically in the centre of Berlin and they had a good vehicle with which they could do what they did.

“It wasn’t my driver, the one that was driving it. They did something to my driver, God forbid, something serious. It looks like that.

“We haven’t heard from him since this afternoon. We don’t know what happened to him.”

He was murdered, the first victim of an Islamic terrorist.

This is big trouble, obviously, for Angela Merkel and the rest of the uncritically pro-Islamic immigration European elite.

The Daily Mail is great at producing maps like this one:

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FURTHER UPDATE: Other accounts say that the terrorist was a Pakistani, rather than Afghan, “refugee.” As always, early reports are likely to be wrong.

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