page_title: 2016 Berlin truck attack
section_title: Reactions
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Berlin truck attack / Reactions
caption_attribution_description: English: Goldener Riss - memorial of the Christmas Fair attack in Berlin 2016
context_page_description: On 19 December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. The truck was eventually stopped by its automatic brakes. The perpetrator was Anis Amri, a Tunisian failed asylum seeker. Four days after the attack, he was killed in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. An initial suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence.
  The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant gave Anis Amri instructions. ISIL released a video of Amri pledging allegiance to the terror group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
context_section_description: Many world leaders offered condolences to Germany and the victims of the attack.
  National and international right-wing politicians and commentators blamed the attack partly on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her policy of accepting an unlimited number of asylum seekers and migrants. Euroskeptic politicians also condemned the lack of border checks under the Schengen system for allowing the perpetrator to travel freely through several countries after the attack. By contrast, several other national and international political commentators praised what they described as the cool-headed reaction of the Merkel administration. The editorial board of The New York Times wrote that it was "dangerous" to blame German refugee policy without waiting for facts about the identity of the attacker to emerge.
  A petition to award Urban the Bundesverdienstkreuz had gathered over 2,500 signatures by the afternoon of 22 December. A donation page to support his family was set up on GoFundMe and collected more than £110,000 by 23 December by British truck driver Dave Duncan. He was officially thanked by Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom Arkady Rzegocki at a ceremony at Embassy of Poland, London on 9 January 2017. Polish authorities provided funds for the delivery of Urban to his family as well as the costs of the funeral and the family of Urban received a state pension. German authorities refused to reimburse the value of the destroyed truck which belonged to a company run by Urban's cousin.
  Muslims and Christians in Berlin held a vigil in solidarity with the victims of the attack. The funeral of Urban was held on 30 December at the Polish village of Banie and was attended by hundreds of people including President of Poland Andrzej Duda.
  The German government reformed its security rules in response to the attack. Among the proposals in the anti-terror plan were easing the deportations of rejected asylum seekers, increasing surveillance of those to be deported and those considered to be terror risks, limiting movement of some asylum seekers within Germany, using electronic tags on those deemed terror threats without a trial, lengthening the period suspects can be held in custody and limiting development aid to countries that don't cooperate in deportation processes. President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi meanwhile stated that Europe "must be calm", vowing to take responsibility for the attacks, but insisted that it was necessary to verify citizenship before accepting deportations. The Bundestag passed a new surveillance law on 9 March in response to the attack as well as other attacks that occurred in Germany in 2016. The law gives priority to public safety when deciding on whether to permit installation of video surveillance in some locations and makes it easier for private companies to install these systems in public places. It also voted for allowing the Federal Police to install surveillance systems for reading and registering licence plate numbers.
caption: "Goldener Riss" memorial as of 2018, marking where the truck came to a stop
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