12 Killed as Truck Slams into Berlin Christmas Market

At least 12 people were killed and 48 wounded today when a truck crashed into a Berlin Christmas market. Officials are investigating the attack as a potential act of terrorism, but the details are still emerging, and it isn’t totally clear what happened.

The truck was Polish-registered and inside the cab the driver was found dead. The trucking company’s owner, the cousin of the driver, insisted it was impossible he was the driver at the time of the accident, and that he believes someone hijacked the truck, killed him, and committed the attack.

A Pakistani refugee was detained by German security forces 2 kilometers from the incident, and there was speculation he is behind the attack, seemingly because he was both sort of near the incident and foreign. Police have subsequently released him, however, over lack of evidence that he was involved in any way.

ISIS has also issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, though as is often the case, ISIS’ claim of credit is taken with a grain of salt, absent evidence, because they claim a lot of incidents that they don’t end up having been involved in.