It was a quintessential Christmas scene: trees strung with lights, vendors serving candied fruit and waffles, the smell of mulled wine wafting through the cold December air.
Happy shoppers milled around buying snacks and gifts in the final days before the holiday.
All that was torn apart at 8 p.m local time on Monday as a huge black truck hauling 25-tonnes of steel plowed into the crowd in central Berlin, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more.
Berlin police said the crash was intentional and is being investigated as a “presumed terrorist attack.”
Latest developments
Police say incident is a “presumed terrorist attack”
Driver pulled alive from truck’s cabin is being treated as a suspect
Second man found dead in truck was Polish, not at wheel when crash occurred
At least 48 people injured when the truck hit the crowd
Victims yet to be formally identified, no names released
Driven from Poland
The truck which devastated the Breitscheidplatz market is owned by a Polish company and appears to have been driven across the border for the attack.
Ariel Zurawski, owner of the truck company, said it may have been hijacked as his cousin — the truck’s regular driver — couldn’t have been behind the wheel.
“My scenario is that they did something to him and hijacked this truck,” Zurawski told CNN affiliate TVN 24. He said that his cousin’s wife had attempted to phone him multiple times but was unable to get through.
The German capital is around a 90 minute drive from the Polish border.
Berlin police said a man found dead in the truck following the accident was a Polish citizen. He was not at the wheel during the incident.
Police said another man inside the truck, apparently the driver, had been apprehended and is being treated as a suspect.
Early Tuesday, police said the truck “was steered deliberately into the crowd.”
Security concerns
With German officials and the White House suggesting the crash may have been an act of terror, comparisons have been drawn with the attack in Nice, France in July.
In that incident, a truck rammed into a crowd gathered to see Bastille Day fireworks, killing 86 and injuring more than 200 people.
Terror groups including ISIS and a branch of Al Qaeda have encouraged their followers to use vehicles to stage attacks.
Prior to Monday’s attack, both the US and UK governments had warned their citizens of potential security threats in Germany.
“There is a high threat from terrorism,” according to UK foreign travel advice. “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in public places visited by foreigners.”
The US had issued a blanket travel warning for Europe, saying there was “credible information (which) indicates terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks.”
German officials had also expressed concerns over security for Christmas markets, which are often frequented by large crowds.
Political repercussions
The driver’s motivations have not been confirmed, nor are many details known about his background.
However, this has not stopped some attributing blame.
US President-elect Donald Trump quickly linked the incident to “ISIS and other Islamist terrorists” and “global jihad.”
If confirmed as a terrorist attack, Monday’s incident could cause further political upheaval for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The German leader has come under criticism over her government’s generous acceptance of refugees. Germany has taken in more than 890,000 asylum seekers in the past year, a marked difference to other European nations.
But a backlash has been growing, fueled in part by Islamist terror attacks in Germany and across the continent, and the capitalization on those incidents by far-right parties and politicians.
This month, Merkel herself called for the ban on Muslim full-face veils, in a concession to the right, anti-immigrant wing of her Christian Democratic Union party.
“For Chancellor Merkel (Monday’s attack) is an absolute nightmare,” Dominic Thomas, professor of French at UCLA, told CNN.
“It feeds into the discourse of (far-right party) Alternative fur Deutschland, which has been trying to shape the conversation precisely around these types of events.”
David Andelman, author of “A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today”, said that many Europeans are coming to fear that traditional democratic values are only giving aid and comfort to terrorists, leading to a swell in support for more authoritarian politics.
“Across Europe, right-wing candidates are positioning themselves against immigration and Islam, defending an ever-tougher stance with every new terrorist assault,” he said.
