Merkel: ‘Especially hard to bear’ if Berlin attacker an asylum seeker

BERLIN, Dec. 20 (UPI) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said a truck crash in Berlin which killed 12 people is being treated by police as a terrorist attack.

“Our investigators are working on the assumption that the truck was steered deliberately into the crowd,” German police said.

A stolen tractor trailer loaded with steel beams drove through a festive Christmas market on Monday. At least 48 people were injured, 18 of them seriously.

A person familiar with the investigation said police apprehended the alleged driver, who is from Pakistan. It is not known if the man entered Germany as a refugee, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“I know it would be especially hard to bear for all of us if it should be confirmed that the person who committed this act sought protection and asylum in Germany. This would be especially despicable toward the many, many Germans who are daily engaged in helping refugees, and toward the many, many people who truly need this protection and strive to integrate themselves into our country,” Merkel said in a press conference.

While the number of refugees entering Germany dropped in 2016, Merkel’s open-door policy has polarized voters. The Berlin incident threatens to undermine her domestic policy as Germany heads to an election year, and could lead to more support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany Party, known as AfD.

“Germany is no longer safe,” AfD co-chairwoman Frauke Petry commented. “We must be under no illusions. The breeding ground in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half.”

Monday’s crash has similarities to a July attack in Nice, in which a truck plowed through a crowd, killing 80. It also came on a day on which a Russian ambassador was assassinated in Ankara, Turkey, and a shooting occurred in a Zurich mosque.