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TERROR IN GERMANY

Who is Naved B? Who was driving the Berlin Christmas market attack lorry and why was Breitscheidplatz targeted?

A STOLEN lorry has ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring dozens more.

Police detained a man they suspected of deliberately crashing the truck – but German media has reported cops arrested the WRONG man.

 A lorry was ‘hijacked’ and then driven into a Christmas market in Germany at 40mph
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A lorry was ‘hijacked’ and then driven into a Christmas market in Germany at 40mphCredit: AP:Associated Press

Who was driving the Berlin Christmas market attack lorry?

The lorry – which was was loaded with 25 tons of steel – had been driven by a Polish man.

Ariel Zurawski, owner of the haulage company to which the truck belonged said his cousin had been driving the truck for 15 years.

It is understood he was murdered by a Jihadist and his body discovered on the passenger seat.

Police said he had not steered the vehicle.

Zurawski said his cousin had parked up the lorry on Monday near to the gates of the company where it was to be offloaded on Tuesday morning.

The last time he spoke with him he told him he was going to get a kebab to eat.

He believes he was kidnapped and murdered shortly afterwards.

 Authorities rushed to the horrific scene and were met with blood-soaked streets
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Authorities rushed to the horrific scene and were met with blood-soaked streetsCredit: Getty Images
 The atrocity killed 12 and came just weeks after chilling threats from ISIS of Christmas market massacres
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The atrocity killed 12 and came just weeks after chilling threats from ISIS of Christmas market massacresCredit: Getty Images

Police detained a man they suspected on having deliberately caused the deadly crash, named locally as Naved B.

According to security sources cited by DPA news agency, the man behind the wheel was an asylum seeker believed to be from Pakistan who arrived in Germany in February.

German magazine Focus said that police special forces were storming a hangar at Berlin's defunct Tempelhof airport, which now houses a refugee accommodation centre.

But German media has since reported police arrested the wrong man.

According to ‘high-ranking security officials’ who spoke to , the 23-year-old Pakistani man arrested in connection with the atrocity is innocent.

The source said: "The real culprit is still armed at large and can cause new damage."

Who is Naved B?

The man named as Naved B by local media was reportedly born on January 1 1993 in Tubat, Pakistan and registered with authorities in Berlin in February.

It is believed he was using several similar aliases after arriving in the country though Passau, a city in south-east Germany which lies on the Austrian border.

Naved B was known to police, but for minor crimes – with no suggested links to terrorism.

The suspected attacker travelled through the Balkans with thousands of other refugees and was staying in Germany's largest refugee camp, the former Tempelhof airport.

He was arrested after the attack and taken overnight to Karlsruhe, the home of Germany's top federal prosecutor who has taken over the investigation.

According to Germany's interior minister, he is being interrogated but denies involvement in the attack.

Why was Breitscheidplatz targeted?

The lorry was ploughed into a packed Berlin Christmas market.

The festive market is in an area popular with tourists, near the capital's iconic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The vehicle tore through the market for as far as 80 metres in the incident which came less than a week before Christmas.

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

The crash happened at a square at the end of the Kurfuerstendamm Boulevard in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The damage to the church in a World War Two bombing raid has been preserved as a reminder of the horrors of war for future generations.

 The crash happened in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church whose damage in a World War Two bombing raid has been preserved as a reminder of the horrors of war for future generations
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The crash happened in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church whose damage in a World War Two bombing raid has been preserved as a reminder of the horrors of war for future generationsCredit: EPA

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.

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


READ MORE:

Stolen lorry ‘driven by refugee’ crashes into Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz in Berlin killing TWELVE and injuring 50

Shocking video shows scores of injured and bloodied shoppers lying on ground moments after attack

Brit tourist describes horrifying moment he fled from lorry as it tore through Berlin Christmas market

Armed cops deployed to British streets amid heightened terror fears in UK after Berlin Christmas market atrocities

German authorities ‘KNEW about plot to attack Berlin Christmas market in the days leading up to tragedy’


 

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