Perpetrators of Berlin attack may be on the loose, police say

BERLIN – One or more of the perpetrators of a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market may still be on the loose, police said Tuesday.

“We are, of course, highly alarmed and we are investigating, of course, in all directions,” said Holger Muench, the head of Germany’s federal police, in a response to a journalist’s question.

Officials have admitted they are uncertain whether a Pakistani suspect in police custody is in fact the driver of the vehicle that ran through the market late Monday, killing 12 people and injuring dozens.

The 23-year-old man, who came to Germany as an asylum seeker last year, has denied involvement in the attack.

“We’ve got the wrong man and therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, on the loose and can do fresh damage,” German newspaper Die Welt cited a police official as saying.

A Polish national who was a passenger in the truck was found shot dead at the scene. His body is currently undergoing autopsy, according to officials.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said earlier that the gun had not been recovered.

He confirmed that the incident had been an intentional attack, but said that the Islamic State extremist group had not yet claimed responsibility for the attack through its official channels.

Writing on Twitter, German police urge Berliners to be “particularly alert.”

Germany’s top prosecutor Peter Frank said that the method used in the attack was reminiscent of the truck attack in Nice, which left 86 people dead in July. He added that it was the “modus operandi” used by Islamist extremists.

The truck used in the Berlin assault left Italy on Friday, Italy’s ANSA news agency reports, quoting unnamed high-level sources from security services.

The truck picked up steel laminate sheeting from a factory near Milan and passed through the Italo-Austrian frontier at the Brenner Pass on Friday, the sources said.

No other link between the attack and Italy has been established.

Police chief Klaus Kandt said law enforcement had raided a refugee shelter in Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airport overnight.

The Pakistani suspect, who had been a resident there, was not on the intelligence agencies’ radar before the incident, Kandt added. He had committed some minor offences, however.

The Christmas market carnage comes less than six months after two terrorist attacks in Germany, both of which were claimed by Islamic State and carried out by people registered as asylum seekers in the country.

The attacks have led large swathes of the public to doubt Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to keep German borders open to refugees.

Some 890,000 migrants entered the country in 2015, prompting a wave of support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

“Like millions of people in Germany, I am deeply saddened and horrified at what happened yesterday at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz,” Merkel said in response to the attack. “We do not want to live in fear of evil.”

Later on Tuesday, Merkel, de Maiziere and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier all signed a condolence book at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church near the site of the attack.

U.S. President Barack Obama has offered his country’s full support in a telephone call with Merkel on Tuesday.