BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel summoned Germany’s top security officials Tuesday to discuss the government’s response to the deadly truck attack in Berlin that claimed at least 12 lives.
Nearly 50 people were injured when a truck plowed into a popular Christmas market filled with tourists and locals outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church near Berlin’s Zoo station late Monday.
“There is still a lot that we don’t know about this act with sufficient certainty,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin, in her first personal statement following the incident. “But we must, as things stand, assume it was a terrorist attack.”
Police, too, said that the truck appeared to have been driven intentionally. So far, no group has claimed responsibility.
Authorities arrested a man about 2 kilometers (1½ miles) from the crash site on suspicion of having been at the wheel of the truck.