Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in which a truck ploughed into crowds in a Christmas market and killed 12 people.

“The executor of the operation.. in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic state and he executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries,” the militant group’s AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday. </s> BERLIN — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured, as German security forces hunted for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

ISIS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker “in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.”

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they’d released a man picked up on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

But federal prosecutors said late Tuesday that he denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

Federal Criminal Police Office chief Holger Muench and other officials had expressed doubt earlier that the man in custody was driving the truck at the time of the attack. Muench also said police haven’t yet found a pistol authorities believe was used to kill a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

Berlin police, meanwhile, urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movements” to a special hotline.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said.

Before Islamic State claimed responsibility, Germany’s top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reminiscent of July’s deadly truck attack in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the militant group.

“There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations,” Frank said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the attack cannot change Germans’ way of life.

“Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren’t among us anymore,” she said in an emotional, nationally televised statement before heading to the scene of the attack in downtown Berlin. “A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives.”

Later Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck attended a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and laid white roses outside the church.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it rammed into the crowd at the Christmas market, smashing wooden stalls and traveling 60 to 80 meters (200 to 260 feet) before coming to a halt.

Six of those killed have been identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck’s passenger seat was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified. Twenty-five people remained hospitalized, 14 with serious injuries.

Inaki Ellakuria, a 21-year-old student from Spain, knew immediately that this was no accident.

“I heard the truck crashing against the first stall,” he tweeted Monday, only minutes after the vehicle ran over dozens of shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin.

“It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally,” he posted.

His next tweet was chilling: “It has swept me and ran over both of my legs.”

Ellakuria on Tuesday underwent surgery at a hospital in Berlin for the broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He also has broken bones in his right ankle and instep, as well as damage to his hip, but he is recovering well, according to his relatives.

Merkel, who has been criticized for allowing in huge numbers of migrants last year, addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

“I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany,” Merkel said. “This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.”

A spokesman for Berlin’s office for refugee affairs said police conducted a broad search overnight at a large shelter for asylum-seekers at the city’s now-defunct Tempelhof airport. Four men in their late 20s were questioned but no one was arrested, Sascha Langenbach told The Associated Press.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle had been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

“They must have done something to my driver,” he told TVN24.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others unrelated to Islamic extremism in the same weeklong period, contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night’s attack, blaming Merkel for what happened.

“Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security,” Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party, wrote.

The German government said Merkel spoke Tuesday with U.S. President Barack Obama, who expressed his condolences. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was ready to help in the investigation and response.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Islamic extremists must be “eradicated from the face of the Earth” and pledged to carry out that mission with all “freedom-loving partners.”

The attack came less than a month after the U.S. State Department warned that extremist groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaida, were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events” in Europe. </s> BERLIN — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured, as German security forces hunted for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

IS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker "in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they'd released a man picked up on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

But federal prosecutors said late Tuesday that he denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

Federal Criminal Police Office chief Holger Muench and other officials had expressed doubt earlier that the man in custody was driving the truck at the time of the attack. Muench also said police haven't yet found a pistol authorities believe was used to kill a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

Berlin police, meanwhile, urged people to remain "particularly vigilant" and report "suspicious movements" to a special hotline.

"We may still have a dangerous criminal out there," Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said.

Before Islamic State claimed responsibility, Germany's top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reminiscent of July's deadly truck attack in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the militant group.

"There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations," Frank said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the attack cannot change Germans' way of life.

"Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren't among us anymore," she said in an emotional, nationally televised statement before heading to the scene of the attack in downtown Berlin. "A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives."

Later Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck attended a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and laid white roses outside the church.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it rammed into the crowd at the Christmas market, smashing wooden stalls and traveling 60 to 80 meters (200 to 260 feet) before coming to a halt.

Six of those killed have been identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck's passenger seat was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified. Twenty-five people remained hospitalized, 14 with serious injuries.

Inaki Ellakuria, a 21-year-old student from Spain, knew immediately that this was no accident.

"I heard the truck crashing against the first stall," he tweeted Monday, only minutes after the vehicle ran over dozens of shoppers at a Christmas market in Berlin.

"It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally," he posted.

His next tweet was chilling: "It has swept me and ran over both of my legs."

Ellakuria on Tuesday underwent surgery at a hospital in Berlin for the broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He also has broken bones in his right ankle and instep, as well as damage to his hip, but he is recovering well, according to his relatives.

Merkel, who has been criticized for allowing in huge numbers of migrants last year, addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

"I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany," Merkel said. "This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country."

A spokesman for Berlin's office for refugee affairs said police conducted a broad search overnight at a large shelter for asylum-seekers at the city's now-defunct Tempelhof airport. Four men in their late 20s were questioned but no one was arrested, Sascha Langenbach told The Associated Press.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle had been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

"They must have done something to my driver," he told TVN24.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others unrelated to Islamic extremism in the same weeklong period, contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night's attack, blaming Merkel for what happened.

"Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security," Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party, wrote.

The German government said Merkel spoke Tuesday with U.S. President Barack Obama, who expressed his condolences. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was ready to help in the investigation and response.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Islamic extremists must be "eradicated from the face of the Earth" and pledged to carry out that mission with all "freedom-loving partners."

The attack came less than a month after the U.S. State Department warned that extremist groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaida, were focusing "on the upcoming holiday season and associated events" in Europe.

Associated Press writers David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. </s> The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured.

IS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker “in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition”.

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refuelling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man arrested on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

However, police said they lacked sufficient evidence tying him to the rampage.

And federal prosecutors said late on Tuesday that he had denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

Additionally, no witnesses had followed him from the scene to the spot where he was picked up.

Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of the calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal warrant which would keep a suspect in custody.

Federal Criminal Police Office chief Holger Muench and other officials had expressed doubt earlier that the man in custody was driving the truck at the time of the attack. Muench also said police had not yet found a pistol which authorities believe was used to kill a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

Berlin police, meanwhile, urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movements” to a special hotline.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said.

Germany’s top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reminiscent of July’s deadly truck attack in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the Islamic State group.

“There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations,” Frank said.

Still, he said authorities had not yet heard any claim of responsibility.

Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the attack could not change Germans’ way of life.

“Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren’t among us anymore,” she said in an emotional, nationally televised statement before heading to the scene of the attack in downtown Berlin. “A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives.”

Later, Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck attended a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and laid white roses.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it rammed into the crowd at the Christmas market, smashing wooden stalls and travelling 60 to 80 metres before coming to a halt.

Six of those killed have been identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck’s passenger seat was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified. Twenty-five people remained hospitalized, 14 with serious injuries.

Merkel, who has been criticized for allowing in huge numbers of migrants last year, addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

“I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany,” Merkel said. “This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.”

A spokesman for Berlin’s office for refugee affairs said police conducted a broad search overnight at a large shelter for asylum-seekers at the city’s now-defunct Tempelhof airport. Four men in their late 20s were questioned but no one was arrested, Sascha Langenbach said.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle had been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

“They must have done something to my driver,” he said.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an axe rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others which were unrelated to Islamic extremism have contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night’s attack, blaming Merkel for what happened.

“Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security,” Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party, wrote.

Manfred Weber, a member of Merkel’s conservative bloc and leader of the European Parliament’s biggest political group, cautioned against sweeping verdicts but said it was important to ensure that extremists did not enter the country.

The German government said Merkel spoke on Tuesday with US President Barack Obama, who expressed his condolences. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was ready to help in the investigation and response.

US President-elect Donald Trump said Islamic extremists must be “eradicated from the face of the Earth” and pledged to carry out that mission with all “freedom-loving partners”.

The attack came less than a month after the US State Department warned that extremist groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaida, were focussing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events” in Europe.

The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds. On 14 July, a truck ploughed into Bastille Day revellers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. IS claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France. </s> A man prays in front of candles and flowers at candles at Breitscheidtplatz after a lorry truck ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that the German authorities said came right out of the extremist group’s playbook.

The Monday night assault on the popular market near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin that left 12 dead and 48 injured was the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. Security forces were hunting for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

The claim of responsibility carried on the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as “a soldier of the Islamic State” who “carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.”

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has stationed Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition that is fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack.

Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” warned Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt, whose office urged people to be “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movement” using a special hotline. </s> A man prays in front of candles and flowers at candles at Breitscheidtplatz after a lorry truck ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist group’s playbook.

The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin that left 12 dead and 48 injured, was the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. German security forces were still hunting for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

The claim of responsibility carried on the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as “a soldier of the Islamic State” who “carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.”

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man picked up near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, was taken into custody based on a description from witnesses of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled after the attack.

Even before his release, officials had expressed doubt the man was behind the attack.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” warned Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt, whose office urged people to be “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movement” using a special hotline. </s> Police said on Twitter that they had taken one suspect into custody and that another passenger from the truck had died as it crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in the heart of former West Berlin.

The nationality of the suspected driver, who fled the crash scene and was later arrested, was unclear, police said.

German media cited local security sources as saying that there was evidence suggesting the arrested suspect was from Afghanistan or Pakistan and entered Germany in February as a refugee.

"We heard a loud bang," Emma Rushton, a tourist, told CNN. "We started to see the top of an articulated truck, a lorry ... just crashing through the stalls, through people."

Rushton said the truck seemed to be traveling at about 40 mph.

Police later said that 48 injured people were brought to Berlin hospitals.

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.

Berlin police said on Twitter they were investigating leads that the truck had been stolen from a construction site in Poland.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the circumstances of the crash were still unclear, adding: "I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet although a lot points to that."

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.

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

The White House on Monday condemned what it called "what appears to have been a terrorist attack".

Germany has not in recent years suffered a large-scale attack from Islamist militants like those seen in neighboring Belgium and France.

But it was shaken by two smaller attacks in Bavaria over the summer, one on a train near Wuerzburg and another at a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 20 people. Both were claimed by Islamic State.

And government officials have said the country, which accepted nearly 900,000 migrants last year, many from the war-torn Middle East, lies in the "crosshairs of terrorism."

In mid-October, police arrested a Syrian refugee suspected of planning a bomb attack on an airport in Berlin. The 22-year-old man committed suicide in prison shortly after his arrest.

A government spokesman said Chancellor Angela Merkel was briefed on the situation by de Maiziere and the Berlin mayor. Police said there were no indications of further dangerous situations in the area and urged people to stay away from the scene.

"I'm deeply shaken about the horrible news of what occurred at the memorial church in Berlin," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

The truck veered into the market around 8 p.m., normally a crowded time when adults and children would be gathering in the traditional cluster of wooden huts that sell food and Christmas goods in an annual celebration replicated across Germany and much of Central Europe.

Ariel Zurawski, whose Polish freight company owns the truck, said the driver of the truck did not work for him.

"It wasn't my driver," Zurawski told Polish private broadcaster TVN 24. "I vouch for him. He's my cousin."

The incident took place near a famous Berlin landmark - the Gedaechtniskirche or memorial church built in 1891-95, which was left a ruin with a jagged tower after it was damaged in World War Two bombing raids as a monument to peace and reconciliation.

Police cars and ambulances converged quickly on the scene. </s> The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages on Monday evening at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin's most famous landmarks. Forty-five people were injured, 30 severely.

Islamic State claimed responsibility the attack, saying the perpetrator was a "soldier" of the militant group.

"He executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries," its AMAQ news agency said.

But Germany's interior minister said that despite the claim, investigators were following various leads.

"We just heard about the supposed claim of responsibility by this so-called Islamic State that is in fact a gang of terrorists," Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD broadcaster. "There are several leads that investigators are following now."

The Chief Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement it had been unable to prove that the suspect had been in the cabin of the truck at the time of the attack and said he had denied any involvement.

Earlier, Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: "We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage."

Commenting on the suspect's release, de Maiziere told ZDF television: "That's why it is true that one cannot rule out that the perpetrator is still at large."

He said there was no doubt the Berlin incident had been an attack but the motive remained unclear. He also said it was not yet known how many foreigners were among the victims of the attack but no children had been among the dead.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani had led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration, but Chancellor Angela Merkel urged caution.

"There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack," she told reporters earlier on Tuesday.

"I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum," she said.

The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found shot dead in the vehicle. The Polish truck driver had arrived hours earlier in the German capital and spoken to his wife about 3 p.m., according to his cousin.

When she called again an hour later, there was no answer.

"At 3.45 p.m. you can see the movement on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The car moved forward and back. As if someone was learning to drive it," said the cousin, Ariel Zurawski, who was also the boss of the trucking company.

Merkel joined hundreds of mourners on Tuesday evening at a memorial service at the church near the attack site. Her spokesman said she had spoken with the leaders of seven European countries and also with U.S. President Barack Obama, who all assured her of their support for Germany.

Security officials in Germany and Europe have warned for years that Christmas markets could present an easy target for militant attacks. In 2000, an al-Qaeda plan to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market on New Year's Eve was foiled.

There were no concrete barricades at the Berlin Christmas market, as have been installed at a similar venue in Britain.

The attack fueled immediate demands for a change to Merkel's immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last.

"We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said: "We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it."

The record influx has hit Merkel's ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year and has boosted support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and "radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany."

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 was claimed by Islamic State.

The influx of migrants to the European Union has deeply divided its 28 members and fueled the rise of populist anti-immigration movements that hope to capitalize on public concerns next year in elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

On Tuesday morning, investigators removed the black truck from the site for forensic examination. People left flowers at the scene and notes, one of which read: "Keep on living, Berliners!" One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.

Merkel said Germans must not be cowed by the attack: "We do not want to live paralyzed by the fear of evil."

"Even if it is difficult in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany - free, together and open."

Other European countries said they were reviewing security.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called for biometric and fingerprint checks to be introduced along the Balkan route used by many migrants arriving in Europe in order to better control foreign jihadist fighters' movements.

London police said they were reviewing their plans for protecting public events over the festive period. </s> ISIS Claims Responsibility for Truck Bomb Attack That Killed at Least 60 in Iraq (ABC News)

A truck bomb left dozens dead and injured in an attack apparently targeted at Shia religious pilgrims on Thursday in the Iraqi city of Hilla -- 60 miles south of Baghdad.

The exact death toll is uncertain. Iraqi police have said that 60 people have died and 25 are wounded, while the head of the Babylon provincial security committee told ABC News earlier that more than 70 were killed and 20 wounded. The White House said "initial reports indicate at least 80 people" are dead.

Falah al-Radhi, the provincial security chief, told ABC News that many of the dead were Iranian Shia pilgrims who were taking part in an Arba'een pilgrimage -- an annual religious event in the holy city of Karbala.

Iraqi and Afghan citizens were also among the wounded and dead, according to police officials.

ISIS, which is associated loosely with Sunni Islam, took credit for the attack in a short statement made through its Amaq News Agency.

Al-Radhi said that a fuel tanker was used to attack a gas station near the city of Hilla. Police officials said the blast was so big that it destroyed most of the gas station and damaged buildings 150 yards away from the epicenter.

The U.S. State Department said that initial reports stated that some of the victims were sitting together and enjoying a meal when the attack happened.

The White House condemned the attack, saying: "The United States extends its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims, as well as to all of Iraq, for this senseless violence, which was clearly intended to stoke sectarian tensions."

The State Department echoed the White House, saying it condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms." The department added: "These murders are yet another example of Daesh's contempt for human life and its efforts to sow discord and division among the Iraqi people."

Arba’een commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the prophet Muhammad’s grandson. Traditionally, the event sees Shia observers march from Baghdad to Karbala on foot. According to Euronews, tight security measures had been enacted for this year’s events, with soldiers, ambulances and armored cars escorting pilgrims along the route.

The attack is the latest in a string of deadly bombings across Iraq this year perpetrated by ISIS and aimed at followers of Shia Islam.

In July, an attack on a commercial district reportedly killed more than 300. Car bombings in May reportedly left around 100 dead. In March, an attacking using a fuel tanker truck -- as is the case in today's attack -- left at least 47 dead in Hilla, according to BBC News. And in February, twin suicide bombings killed 70 people in a Shia-dominated district of Baghdad, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Faiq reported from Baghdad, Iraq, while Blake reported from New York. ABC News’ Lena Masri, John Parkinson and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility via Amaq News Agency for the truck attack in Berlin, Germany, which left at least 12 people dead and 49 injured.