BERLIN -- Berlin police say a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, killing at least nine people and causing multiple injuries.

Police said on Twitter that the truck rammed into the market outside the capital's popular Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Monday evening.

Bild newspaper posted a picture of a large Scania truck with its windshield smashed out on the sidewalk alongside the market.

Police say they're still investigating whether the incident was an accident or an attack. </s> A police spokesman described it as a "severe incident."

"A truck just ran over a sidewalk at #Breitscheidplatz Our colleague report multiple injuries. more to follow," Berlin police tweeted.

One witness Emma Rushton tweeted: "People crushed. I am safe. I am safe."

The incident happened in Breitscheidplatz in western Berlin.

Rushton, who was in the market when the truck came through, told CNN that the truck didn't slow down. "We saw at least 10 people" injured and lying on the ground, she said. Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief at Bild, a German tabloid newspaper, said the market would be busy every night of the week leading up to Christmas. The market is difficult to access by accident. "It looks like something that was adapted by Nice," Reichelt said, referring to the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France, that left at least 80 people dead and more than 400 injured. Police could not confirm whether Monday's incident in Berlin was related to terror and had no information on the driver. One witness said the truck had a Polish license plate, according to Reichelt. </s> The Berlin Christmas market attack suspect has been killed in Milan, according to Italian state police. Twelve people were killed and dozens injured when a truck plowed into the busy market Monday. </s> Firefighters inspect the site after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market and killed several people in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: AP)

Berlin: A lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more in what police said was a suspected terror attack.

Ambulances and heavily armed police rushed to the area after the vehicle mounted the pavement of the market in a square popular with tourists, in horrific scenes reminiscent of July's deadly truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice.

"I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet, although there are many things pointing to one," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told public television.

As witnesses described scenes of panic and carnage, police said at least 12 people were killed and 48 others were injured in the incident which comes less than a week before Christmas.

Australian Trisha O'Neill told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she was only metres from where the truck smashed into the crowded market.

"I just saw this huge black truck speeding through the markets crushing so many people and then all the lights went out and everything was destroyed.

"I could hear screaming and then we all froze. Then suddenly people started to move and lift all the wreckage off people, trying to help whoever was there."

O'Neill said there was "blood and bodies everywhere".

A German police spokeswoman told AFP that a man who was apparently driving the truck had been detained while the passenger was dead.

Security sources cited by DPA news agency said that the man behind the wheel was an asylum seeker from Afghanistan or Pakistan who arrived in Germany in February.

The daily Tagesspiegel said the man was known to police but for minor crimes, not links to terrorism.

The Polish owner of the lorry confirmed his driver was missing.

"We haven't heard from him since this afternoon. We don't know what happened to him. He's my cousin, I've known him since I was a kid. I can vouch for him," transport company owner Ariel Zurawski told AFP.

German authorities said there was no indication of "further dangerous situations in the city near Breitscheidplatz", where the suspected attack took place.

"We are investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it," a police spokesman said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted quickly to the tragedy, with spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeting: "We mourn the dead and hope that the many people injured can be helped."

Traditional Christmas markets are popular in cities and towns throughout Germany and have frequently been mentioned by security services as potentially vulnerable to attacks.

"It's awful. We were in Berlin for Christmas," said American tourist Kathy Forbes. "We also thought it would be safer than Paris."

The crash happened in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church whose damage in a World War II bombing raid has been preserved as a warning to future generations.

The square is at the end of the Kurfuerstendamm boulevard which was packed with holiday shoppers.

Police said the truck made it as far as 80 metres (yards) into the Christmas market before it came to a halt.

Europe has been on high alert for most of 2016, with terror attacks striking Paris and Brussels, while Germany has been hit by several assaults claimed by the Islamic State group and carried out by asylum-seekers.

An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 people in the same state six days later.

In another case, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl in February stabbed a police officer in the neck with a kitchen knife, wounding him badly, allegedly on IS orders.

The arrival of 890,000 refugees last year has polarised Germany, with critics calling the influx a serious security threat.

The attack in Berlin also comes five months after Tunisian extremist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd on the Nice seafront, killing 86 people.

In response to the Berlin tragedy, France beefed up security at its own Christmas markets.

"The French share in the mourning of the Germans in the face of this tragedy that has hit all of Europe," President Francois Hollande said.

The Nice bloodshed -- as people were watching a fireworks display on the Bastille Day holiday on July 14 -- further traumatised a France already reeling from a series of jihadist attacks.

The United States labelled it an apparent "terrorist attack" and pledged its support.

President-elect Donald Trump blamed "Islamist terrorists" for a "slaughter" of Christians in the German capital. </s> A man believed to be the suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was killed in a shoot-out in a suburb of the northern Italian city of Milan on Friday, a security source told foreign media.

The Italian interior minister will hold a news conference at 10:45 a.m. (0945 GMT), the ministry said.

Earlier today, a man matching the description of Amri was seen in Aalborg in northern Denmark, the Danish police tweeted. The police said people should keep away from the area as it had an ongoing operation there.

Fingerprints from a Tunisian suspect were also found inside the truck that smashed through the Christmas market and investigators assumed the migrant was at the wheel, officials said. Police had been on the hunt across Europe for Anis Amri, 24, as Germany reels from its worst attack in decades. </s> Police said Tuesday that the driver who rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in the heart of the German capital, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly 50, did so intentionally and that they are investigating a suspected "terror attack."

The truck struck the popular Christmas market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church late Monday as tourists and locals were enjoying a traditional pre-Christmas evening near Berlin's Zoo station.

"Our investigators are working on the assumption that the truck was intentionally driven into the crowd at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz," Berlin police said on Twitter.

"All police measures concerning the suspected terror attack at Breitscheidplatz are being taken with great speed and the necessary care," they said.

Hours earlier Germany's top security official had refrained from pointing to an intentional act, but said evidence pointed in that direction, while the White House condemned "what appears to have been a terrorist attack."

The crash came less than a month after the U.S. State Department called for caution in markets and other public places across Europe, saying extremist groups including Islamic State and al-Qaida were focusing "on the upcoming holiday season and associated events."

The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds. On July 14, a truck plowed into Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France.

After the Berlin attack, dozens of ambulances lined the streets waiting to evacuate people, and heavily armed police patrolled. Authorities on Twitter urged people to stay away from the area, to keep the streets clear for rescue vehicles.

Among the dead was a man in the truck, who succumbed as paramedics treated him, Berlin police spokesman Winfried Wenzel said. Police said later that the man was a Polish national, but didn't give further details of who he was or what happened to him.

A suspect believed to be the driver was picked up about 2 kilometers (1½ miles) away, near the Victory Column monument.

Berlin's public radio station RBB-Inforadio reported that the suspect was a Pakistani citizen who entered Germany on Dec. 31, 2015. RBB-Inforadio cited unnamed security sources in its report, which concurred with those in other German media. Berlin police declined to confirm the reports, but Wenzel said the man was being interrogated.

The truck was registered in Poland.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle may have been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon, 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.

Federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases, took over the investigation, according to German Justice Minister Heiko Maas. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was in contact with German officials and ready to help in the investigation and response.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump blamed Islamist terrorists, though it was unclear what that assessment was based on. He said Islamic extremists must be "eradicated from the face of the earth" and pledged to carry out that mission with all "freedom-loving partners."

But German officials said shortly after the attack that it was too early to call the crash intentional.

"I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet at the moment, although a lot speaks for it," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television. "There is a psychological effect in the whole country of the choice of words here, and we want to be very, very cautious and operate close to the actual investigation results, not with speculation."

Germany has not experienced any mass-casualty attacks by Islamic extremists, but has been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers in the summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an ax rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 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, helped stoke tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants. </s> A European-wide search is on for a 24-year-old Tunisian man, suspected of being involved in Monday’s truck crash at a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 and injured nearly 50.

A German security official says authorities had considered him a possible terror threat before the incident and had been trying to deport him after his asylum application was rejected back in the summer.

The wanted poster names Anis Amri as having several aliases as well as Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship.

There’s a $140,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

The post REWARD OFFERED FOR ARREST OF SUSPECT IN BERLIN CHRISTMAS MARKET CRASH appeared first on Zoomer Radio AM740. </s> BERLIN (AP) – The Latest on the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market (all times local):

5:45 p.m. – German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($105,000) for the arrest of a Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the fatal attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Federal prosecutors describe 24-year-old Anis Amri as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.

In a public notice issued Wednesday, prosecutors warn that the suspect could be “dangerous and armed,” and urge members of the public to notify police if they see him.

5:05 p.m. – Berlin’s city government says 12 people are still being treated for very serious injuries after the truck attack on a Christmas market.

Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded in Monday night’s attack. Berlin’s state health ministry said Wednesday that 12 people are still in hospital with very serious injuries, among them an unspecified number in critical condition.

However, it said that an increasing number of people with lighter injuries are being discharged.

4:55 p.m. – A wanted notice for a Tunisian suspect in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin says the man should be considered armed and dangerous.

The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany obtained by The Associated Press, indicates he has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities.

It names Anis Amri as having Tunisian citizenship, born in the town of Ghaza. But it lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, and Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship as well.

German authorities say they rejected the man’s asylum request in July.

AP ALERT: Wanted notice for suspect in Berlin truck attack says he has used 6 different names, 3 nationalities

PARIS (AP) – Wanted notice for suspect in Berlin truck attack says he has used 6 different names, 3 nationalities.

4 p.m. – A senior German security official says the Tunisian man being sought in connection with Monday’s truck attack in Berlin had been considered a possible terror threat by German authorities.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, says “security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November.”

Jaeger told reporters on Wednesday that state police had launched proceedings against the man on suspicion that he was preparing a serious crime.

Separately, he says German authorities rejected the man’s asylum request in July.

2:50 p.m. – Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker with Germany’s governing conservatives who speaks on domestic security matters, says the new suspect in the Berlin market attack being sought by German authorities is thought to be a Tunisian with ties to Islamic extremists.

Mayer says the man, whose wallet was found in the cab of the truck that slammed into a busy Christmas market in the German capital on Monday evening, was apparently meant to be deported from Germany earlier this year.

Mayer spoke Wednesday after being briefed by security officials about the investigation into the truck attack that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured.

2:40 p.m. – Germany’s interior minister has confirmed that authorities are seeking a new suspect in the deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says Wednesday that a manhunt has begun in Germany and in the European Union’s border-free Schengen area. He gave no details on the suspect.

He also would neither confirm nor deny details published in German media, which reported that he’s a Tunisian whose documents were found in the truck that killed 12 people and injured nearly 50 as it plowed into a Christmas market on Monday evening.

2:30 p.m. – A Tunisian official says German investigators are trying to determine the role of a Tunisian man whose identity papers were found in the cab of the truck that smashed into Berlin’s Christmas market.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the German government hasn’t publicly commented on the potential suspect, said Tunisian authorities are requesting more information on the German probe into Anis Amri. He declined to comment further.

A Tunisian living in France was shot to death after carrying out a similar attack on Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people.

2:00 p.m. – The German government has agreed on a bill that will strengthen security considerations when it comes to video surveillance.

The move has been planned for months but its approval by the Cabinet on Wednesday comes two days after a deadly truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that sent German authorities scrambling for footage of the suspected perpetrator.

The proposed law would make data protection commissioners give greater weight than before to “the protection of life, health and freedom” when deciding whether to permit video surveillance in public places.

Germany has traditionally had very restrictive data protection rules.

The bill needs to be approved by Parliament.

1:00 p.m. – The top security official in Germany’s western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is planning to make a statement related to the truck attack in Berlin.

Officials say the state’s interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, will make a statement at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) Wednesday.

German media report that police are searching for a Tunisian man whose documents were found in the cab of the truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market Monday, killing twelve and injuring dozens.

The man’s documents were issued in Kleve, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia state on the border with the Netherlands.

12:15 p.m. – French President Francois Hollande says French intelligence services are in “constant contact” with German counterparts about extremist threats, notably since the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

Hollande signed a book of condolences at the German Embassy in Paris on Wednesday for the 12 killed in Monday’s attack. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group and echoed a similar attack in the French city of Nice in July.

Hollande promised solidarity and support for Germany, just as German authorities offered help when France has been attacked in recent years.

Hollande did not provide details of French police efforts to find the driver who rammed a truck into the Berlin market and is believed still at large.

12 p.m. – German media report that authorities have identified and are searching for a suspect in connection with the fatal truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

The Allgemeine Zeitung in Mainz, weekly Der Spiegel and daily Welt reported Wednesday that police found documents in the truck cab that were issued to a Tunisian man. They did not cite any sources for the information.

German authorities had to release two suspects arrested in the wake of Monday’s attack due to insufficient evidence. They had no immediate comment on Wednesday’s reports.

Twelve people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin.

11:40 a.m. – Germany’s president has visited patients at a Berlin hospital who were wounded in Monday’s truck attack. The hospital’s medical director says that they are suffering from pelvic and other injuries.

President Joachim Gauck said he spoke with three patients at the Charite hospital who faced operations on Wednesday and he was impressed by their “composure.” He also met a man who had rushed to help in the aftermath of the rampage and was hit by a steel beam.

The Charite took in 13 patients after the attack, two of whom died. Medical director Ulrich Frei says that, among those who are still being treated, four have “severe trauma of the lower extremities and the pelvis.”

10:40 a.m. – The Israeli Foreign Ministry says that an Israeli man was seriously wounded in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin and his wife is missing.

Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Wednesday that the man is in stable condition following surgery. He says Israel is in touch “day and night” with German authorities to try to find the wife.

He declined to disclose the couple’s personal details, saying only that the couple was in Berlin on holiday and that their relatives had arrived in Germany on Tuesday.

8:30 a.m. – German investigators were searching Wednesday for the killer or killers in Monday’s attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market after a man arrested soon after the rampage was released for lack of evidence and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Police in Berlin said they had received 508 tips on the attack as of Tuesday night, but it wasn’t clear whether prosecutors had any concrete leads. </s> German authorities on Wednesday named the suspect in the Christmas market truck attack as Anis Amri, and offered a reward of up to 100,000 Euros (104,000 dollars) for information leading to his arrest.

The 24-year-old Tunisian, who had three aliases and came to Germany in July 2015, is the subject of a Europe-wide manhunt as the main suspect in the attack, which killed 12 people and injured another 48.

He was described in official papers as 1.78 metres tall, weighing about 75 kilograms with black hair and brown eyes.

Amri was already under investigation in Germany on suspicion of planning a serious act of violence.
Twelve are killed and more than 50 others are injured as a truck rams into a packed Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, Berlin, Germany. A suspect has been arrested in connection with the attack.