According to a report by IFP, 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 out near Berlin’s Zoo station.
man“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.
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.”
Meanwhile, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly Christmas market truck crash. The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force tweeted that the terror group was taking credit for the incident.
Using encrypted technology, the group said they found several extremist Twitter accounts that had been claiming responsibility for the alleged attack, according to the Washington Times.
The crash came less than a month after the calls for caution in markets and other public places across Europe, saying extremist groups including ISIS and al-Qaida were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events.”
The ISIS group and al-Qaida have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds. On July 14, a truck ploughed into Bastille Day revellers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. The ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France.
