On 19 December 2016, a
truck was deliberately driven into the
Christmas market
A Christmas market, also known as ''Christkindlmarkt'' (literally: ''Christ Child Market'', but the term "Christkind" usually refers to an angel-like "spirit of Christmas" rather than literally the Christ Child), ''Christkindlesmarkt'', ''Chris ...
next to the
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, but mostly just known as Gedächtniskirche ) is a Protestant church affiliated with the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia, a regi ...
at
Breitscheidplatz
Breitscheidplatz () is a major public square in the inner city of Berlin, Germany. Together with the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, it marks the centre of former West Berlin and the present-day City West. It is named after Rudolf Breitscheid.
Locat ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. The truck was eventually stopped by its
automatic brakes. The perpetrator was Anis Amri, an unsuccessful
asylum seeker
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and mi ...
. Four days after the attack, he was killed in a shootout with police near
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. An initial suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. Nearly five years after the attack, a man who was critically injured during the attack died from complications related to his wounds, becoming the 13th victim.
The
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
claimed responsibility for the attack and released a video of the perpetrator, Anis Amri, pledging allegiance to the terror group's leader,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
.
Background
The Berlin attack took place during a time of
heightened Islamist terrorist activity in Europe. Several terrorist attacks in 2016, in Germany and in neighboring countries, have been linked to ISIS;
["Germany attacks: What is going on?"](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016. some of them were similar to the truck attack on the Christmas market in Berlin (e.g. the
2014 Nantes attack and the
2016 Nice truck attack).
In March, 32 people were killed by
three coordinated suicide bombings in the Belgian capital
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. On 14 July, a Tunisian man
deliberately drove a truck into crowds celebrating
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...
in the French city of
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
, killing 86 people. Four days later, an Afghan asylum seeker
stabbed five people on a train near
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg is ...
, Germany. On 24 July, a Syrian refugee
blew himself up outside a music festival in the German city of
Ansbach
Ansbach (; ; East Franconian: ''Anschba'') is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränkische Rezat, a ...
, wounding fifteen people. Two days later Islamists
attacked Christians attending a church service in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, killing an elderly priest.
On 26 November a 12-year-old Iraqi-German boy
planted a nail bomb at a Christmas market in
Ludwigshafen
Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...
, but it failed to detonate.
On 21 November, the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
warned that Americans "should exercise caution at holiday festivals, events, and outdoor markets" throughout Europe. This was in view of the threat from ISIL,
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
and affiliated groups, including self-radicalized extremists. Going back to at least 2000, a
Frankfurt-based Al-Qaeda plot to bomb the
Strasbourg Christmas market was foiled by law enforcement.
Attack
Truck hijacking
![20151115 Berlin bei Nacht 15-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/20151115_Berlin_bei_Nacht_15-1.jpg)
The vehicle involved, a black
Scania R 450 semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer ...
, bore
Polish number plates and belongs to a Polish delivery company, ''Usługi Transportowe (Transport Services) Ariel Żurawski'', based in
Sobiemyśl
Sobiemyśl (formerly ) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Gryfino, within Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, close to the German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germani ...
. The truck was on its return leg to Poland, having started its trip in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy,
and was transporting steel beams to a Berlin warehouse
owned by
ThyssenKrupp
ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and h ...
.
![2016 Berlin attack route map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/2016_Berlin_attack_route_map.svg)
The head of the delivery company, Ariel Żurawski, reported that his cousin Łukasz Robert Urban
had been driving the truck to Berlin, but that he could not imagine him being responsible for the attack.
Żurawski's company last contacted Urban between 15:00 and 16:00, when Urban reported that he had arrived a day early to the Berlin warehouse and that he had to wait there overnight to unload his truck the following morning.
The last photo of Urban still alive was taken at a
kebab
Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...
shop near the ThyssenKrupp warehouse at about 14:00.
The family had been unable to contact Urban since 16:00. Żurawski suspected that the truck had been
hijacked
Hijacking may refer to:
Common usage
Computing and technology
* Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth
* Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand
* Browser hijacking
* Clickjacking (including ''like ...
based on its GPS coordinates,
as well as indications that the truck was being driven erratically.
Żurawski later identified the victim found in the truck as his cousin Urban,
the original driver of the semi-trailer;
Urban was killed by the perpetrator of the attack.
According to a post-mortem examination cited by the German media, Urban was shot in the head between 16:30 and 17:30.
Attack on Christmas market
On 19 December 2016, at 20:10 local time, the perpetrator drove the stolen truck through a
Christmas market
A Christmas market, also known as ''Christkindlmarkt'' (literally: ''Christ Child Market'', but the term "Christkind" usually refers to an angel-like "spirit of Christmas" rather than literally the Christ Child), ''Christkindlesmarkt'', ''Chris ...
at
Breitscheidplatz
Breitscheidplatz () is a major public square in the inner city of Berlin, Germany. Together with the Kurfürstendamm boulevard, it marks the centre of former West Berlin and the present-day City West. It is named after Rudolf Breitscheid.
Locat ...
in the
City West
City West (formerly known as ''Neuer Westen'' ("New West") or ''Zooviertel'' ("Zoo Quarter")) is an area in the western part of central Berlin. It is one of Berlin's main commercial areas, and was the commercial centre of former West Berlin when ...
of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, killing 11 people and injuring 56.
The incident is the deadliest terrorist attack in Germany since an
attack at Oktoberfest in Munich in 1980, which killed 13 people and injured 211 others.
The truck came from the direction of Hardenbergstraße, drove about through the market, and destroyed several stalls
before turning back onto Budapester Straße and coming to a stop level with the
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, but mostly just known as Gedächtniskirche ) is a Protestant church affiliated with the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia, a regi ...
.
Several witnesses saw the driver leave the truck and flee towards
Tiergarten. One witness ran after him.
Łukasz Urban was found dead in the passenger seat of the truck cab; he had been stabbed and shot
once in the head
with a small-caliber firearm.
Investigators initially believed that Urban might still have been alive when the truck reached Breitscheidplatz and might have been stabbed because he tried to stop the attack. Early media reports indicated that he grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the truck to veer left and crash to a stop, and was then shot at the scene of the crash. If this had been true, this act might have saved many lives. However, later media reports have indicated that the truck was brought to a stop by its
automatic braking system and Urban was stabbed and shot hours before the attack. No weapons were found at the scene.
The Christmas market reopened on 22 December. Damaged stalls were removed and memorials were set up in their stead. Concrete barriers were placed along sides facing streets.
Victims
Twelve people died and at least forty-eight were injured throughout the attack. Many of those injured sustained serious injuries and broken bones from either being hit by the truck, or by the collapse of the wooden stalls that were damaged by the truck. Five years after the attack, a first responder to the attack died in 2021 due to injuries he sustained while responding to victims. It is believed that he was wounded by a beam, sustaining serious head injuries.
Investigation
![2016 Berlin Christmas market truck attack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/2016_Berlin_Christmas_market_truck_attack.jpg)
The police and public prosecutor investigated the incident as a
terrorist attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
The Chancellor of Germany,
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
, said, "We must assume this was a terrorist attack." The German Minister of the Interior,
Thomas de Maizière, described the incident as a brutal attack. The U.S. Department of State had previously warned of terrorist attacks on Christmas markets in Europe after ISIL took control of
Raqqa
Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish languages, Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. T ...
and
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...
.
ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after the release of a Pakistani suspect who was mistakenly detained.
["Berlin attack: So-called Islamic State claims responsibility"](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
Initial suspect
![2016-12-19 Berlin, Breitscheidplatz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/2016-12-19_Berlin%2C_Breitscheidplatz.jpg)
On the evening of 19 December, police arrested a suspect, believed to have driven the truck during the attack, near the
Berlin Victory Column
The Victory Column (german: , from ''Sieg'' ‘victory’ + '' Säule'' ‘column’) is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War, by the time it was i ...
.
He had aroused suspicion by running away from the scene of the attack out of fear that he would be considered a suspect.
The arrested man, initially identified only as Naved B. (later said to be Naved Baloch by the British newspaper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
), denied involvement and was later identified as a 23-year-old asylum seeker from
Turbat
Turbat is the second-largest city in Balochistan after Quetta and 38th largest city of Pakistan. It is the largest city in the southern part of the province.
Education
University:
University of TurbatBalochistan University of Engineering & ...
, Pakistan. The Berlin
SEK police tactical unit stormed the hangar at the former
Berlin Tempelhof Airport, which is used as a refugee camp, where the arrested man lived with six others in a room. His mobile phone was seized and analyzed. Police sources later suggested that they might have arrested "the wrong man" because the individual in custody did not carry
gunshot residue
Gunshot residue (GSR), also known as cartridge discharge residue (CDR), gunfire residue (GFR), or firearm discharge residue (FDR), consists of all of the particles that are expelled from the muzzle of a gun following the discharge of a bullet. It ...
or any marks that would indicate that he had been in a fight.
Furthermore, forensic tests did not indicate that the suspect was inside the cab of the truck. Police therefore believed that the attacker might still be at large.
German Public Prosecutor General Peter Frank said, "We have to get used to the idea that the man apprehended may not be the perpetrator or belong to the group of perpetrators."
The man was released on the evening of 20 December due to lack of evidence.
![Hardenbergstrasse to Breitscheidplatz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Hardenbergstrasse_to_Breitscheidplatz.jpg)
In an interview with ''The Guardian'' on 29 December, he narrated the incident of his arrest on 19 December. According to him, after leaving a friend's house and crossing a road in central Berlin on the evening, a car started following him after which he walked faster. When he realised that it was a police car, he stopped when they asked him to and showed his identification documents to them. He was allowed to go, but was called back seconds later and arrested. He claimed that he was tied up, blindfolded and also slapped by the police after refusing to undress for photographs. He said in the interview that he had gone into hiding, fearing for his life. ''The Guardian'' also said he had applied for asylum in Germany as a member of a
secular separatist movement in
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of Pakistan.
[
]
Anis Amri
On 21 December, police announced that investigators had found, under the truck's driver's seat, a suspension of deportation permit belonging to Anis Amri, a man who was born in Tataouine
Tataouine ( ber, Tiṭṭawin; ar, تطاوين) is a city in southern Tunisia. It is the capital of the Tataouine Governorate. The below-ground "cave dwellings" of the native Berber population, designed for coolness and protection, render the ...
, Tunisia, on 22 December 1992. Authorities began a Europe-wide search for Amri. According to investigators, Amri entered Germany from Italy in 2015 and had contacts with the network of the recently arrested Salafist
The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...
preacher Abu Walaa
Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah Abdullah (born 1984), better known as Abu Walaa, is an Islamic preacher based in Hildesheim, Germany. In 2016 he was arrested for supporting terrorism.
Biography
Born in al-Tamim, Iraq, he immigrated to Germany in 2001 ...
, a known ISIL recruiter in Germany. Amri was sought by the Federal Criminal Police Office. Officials called for a public manhunt, issuing a recent picture, and offering a reward of €
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
100,000, warning that Amri might be armed and dangerous. He was described as being tall, weighing approximately , with dark hair and brown eyes.
Amri fled from Tunisia to escape imprisonment for stealing a truck and arrived for the first time in Europe in 2011 on a refugee raft at the island of Lampedusa
Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
The ''comune'' of L ...
. He lied about his age, pretending to be a minor
Minor may refer to:
* Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities.
** A person who has not reached the age of majority
* Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education
Music theory
*Minor chord
** Barb ...
, and was sent to the temporary migrants reception center on the island.[Guulia Paravicini]
Suspected Berlin attacker spent 4 years in Italian jails
''Politico.eu'' (22 December 2016). At the center, according to Italian security officials, Amri "took part in a particularly violent riot, when the center was set on fire and several people were injured" and was sentenced for it and robbery to four years in prison, which he served in two jails in Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
. Amri was released in 2015; according to Italian officials, the Tunisian authorities refused to accept his repatriation to Tunisia, and it is believed that he went to Germany around this time. Per an autopsy on his body, it was found that he frequently consumed drugs.
In Tunisia, Amri was sentenced ''in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in absen ...
'' to five years in prison, "reportedly for aggravated theft with violence". Prior to that he had been arrested several times for possession and use of drugs. According to his family, he drank alcohol, took drugs and was initially not religious, but had been radicalized in Italian jails. The man arrived in Germany in July 2015 and applied for asylum in April 2016. He used at least 14 different aliases and posed as a citizen of Syria, Egypt or Lebanon. He reportedly had tried to recruit participants for a terrorist attack since the spring, and once tried to buy a pistol from an undercover police officer. He had been overheard by the German intelligence offering to carry out a suicide attack, but the German authorities had decided not to arrest him because they deemed him a mere errand boy. The German CID
CID may refer to:
Film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1955 film), an Indian Malayalam film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1956 film), an Indian Hindi film
* ''C. I. D.'' (1965 film), an Indian Telugu film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1990 film), an Indian Hindi film
Television
* ''CID'' ( ...
warned in March 2016 that he was planning a suicide attack and recommended immediate deportation. However, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
ruled he could not be deported. In Germany he was involved in a bar brawl and drug dealing; later he was involved in a knife attack over drugs in July 2016 and disappeared after police tried to question him. Three weeks before the attack, Moroccan intelligence warned Germany about the terrorist attack planned by him. He had started spending more time in Berlin before the attack and was being closely monitored, however showed no signs of planning a terrorist attack per a report submitted by the German Interior Minister to the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. German authorities were seeking to deport him at the time of the attack, however the legal requirements hadn't been met because Tunisia initially denied that Amri was their citizen but documents confirming it arrived in Germany after the attack.[
A few minutes after the attack, a surveillance camera spotted him at ]Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station (german: Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten, colloquially Bahnhof Zoo, ) is a railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located on the Berlin Stadtbahn railway line in the Charlottenburg district, adjacent to t ...
which is close to the Christmas market. At the station, he turned to the camera and raised a finger, a gesture commonly used by Islamists. He later left Germany, travelling to Netherlands, Belgium and France before reaching Italy. On 23 December at around 03:00 CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
, Amri was killed in a shootout with police in front of the railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
in Sesto San Giovanni
Sesto San Giovanni (; lmo, Sest San Giovann, label=Western Lombard ), locally referred to as just Sesto ( lmo, Sest, links=no), is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Lombardy, northern Italy. Its railway station is the northernmost s ...
near Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. He had just arrived by train from Chambéry
Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...
, France (via Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
). During a routine patrol, two police officers asked to search his backpack after he said he did not have any identity documents. Amri pulled out a gun and shot one of the officers in the shoulder; the other officer shot Amri dead. The Italian Minister of the Interior
The Minister of the Interior (Italian: ''Ministro dell'Interno'') in Italy is one of the most important positions in the Italian Council of Ministers and leads the Ministry of the Interior. The current Minister is prefect Matteo Piantedosi, a ...
, Marco Minniti, stated that a policeman had been hospitalized with a shoulder injury. On the same day, Amaq released a video of Amri pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
, the leader of ISIL. German officials have confirmed that Amri's fingerprint
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
s matched those in the inside of the truck.
On 28 December, German prosecutors said they had detained a 40-year-old Tunisian man, who they thought may have been involved in the attack. Amri had saved the number of this man in his phone. Prosecutors stated on the next day that he was released after investigations revealed that he was not a suspected contact of Amri. They also confirmed that the attacker had sent a mobile phone voice message and a picture to a contact shortly before carrying out the attack. The German police raided the homes of two suspected associates on 3 January 2017, including a 26-year-old Tunisian man they suspected of being in contact with Amri and knowing about the attack as well as a former flatmate of Amri. The Tunisian suspect who was suspected of either planning the attack or knowing about it was detained with federal prosecutors stating that he had known Amri since the end of 2015, had met him a day before the attack and both had "very intense conversations". Amri's former flatmate was also being investigated and the attacker had tried to contact him twice on 19 December.
Italian police confirmed on 4 January that the gun used in the attack, a .22-caliber Erma Model EP552S pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
(Walther PPK
The Walther PP (german: Polizeipistole, or police pistol) series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen.
It features an exposed hammer, a traditional double-ac ...
clone), matched the one found on Amri. ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
reported on 6 January that he might have acquired the gun in Switzerland and lived there for a prolonged period of time whose length investigators were trying to determine. Swiss prosecutors meanwhile opened a case related to the attack. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland later confirmed that he had spent some time in the country while the German police were investigating whether the gun was acquired by him there. Investigators stated on 18 January that the gun was imported legally into Switzerland in 1990s, but it remained unclear what happened to it afterwards as it didn't appear in the weapons registers of cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Con ...
and there was no national weapons register at the time.
On 24 December, Tunisian authorities arrested three men suspected of terrorist links including Amri's nephew. They stated that Amri had urged his nephew to join ISIL and had sent him money to travel to Europe. Tunisian Interior Ministry stated that he had also told him that he was the emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
or leader of a German jihadist group called "Abu al-Walaa brigade". Another person was announced to have been arrested on 7 January in Tunisia in relation to the case. However all four were released on the next day as they weren't found to have links to the attack or any terrorist group.
Italy's Interior Ministry
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
announced on 12 March that it had deported a 37-year-old Tunisian man whose telephone number was in Amri's contact list. The ministry stated that he had been in contact with the attacker and his number was also linked to a Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
profile supporting jihadist ideology where he connected with supporters of ISIL. It added that he was living in Latina
Latina or Latinas most often refers to:
* Latinas, a demographic group in the United States
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America.
*Latin Americans
Latina and Latinas may also refer ...
where he associated with fellow extremists who opposed a moderate imam at a local mosque. In late-March, Turkey arrested more than 6 men allegedly linked to Amri.
Amri's friends
Six individuals including some friends of Amri's were arrested on 8 April 2018 for planning a knife attack on a sports event in Berlin. The main suspect was under police surveillance. They were all released after no evidence was found that they were planning a terror attack.
Defective investigation and obstruction of justice
On 17 May 2017 the Interior Ministry of Berlin stated that already in November 2016 intelligence was given that Anis Amri was involved in criminal offenses concerning drug trafficking. On this basis authorities would have been able to apprehend Amri already at the time, however they did not. An investigation was launched trying to find out to what extent this information was withheld by the State Criminal Police Office of Berlin after the attack happened. Several days later, while the investigation for obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, is an act that involves unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other gov ...
was still going on, a speaker of the Interior Ministry said that manipulations of the file of Amri have been carried out by officers of the criminal investigation department after the attack. On 22 May 2017 a commission of inquiry was initiated starting in July. Meanwhile, a special prosecutor was appointed to the case. In addition to the ongoing investigation concerning manipulations of the file and withholding of information, national TV reported on 1 June, that officers who were ordered by an investigating judge in Berlin to observe Amri until October 2016 for criminal offenses and possible terrorist links did not do so and instead included untrue records regarding observing actions in his file.
Reactions
Many world leaders offered condolences to Germany and the victims of the attack.
National and international right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
politicians and commentators blamed the attack partly on German Chancellor
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ger ...
Angela Merkel and her policy of accepting an unlimited number of asylum seekers and migrants. Euroskeptic
Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...
politicians also condemned the lack of border checks under the Schengen system for allowing the perpetrator to travel freely through several countries after the attack. By contrast, several other national and international political commentators praised what they described as the cool-headed reaction of the Merkel administration. The editorial board of ''The New York Times'' wrote that it was "dangerous" to blame German refugee policy without waiting for facts about the identity of the attacker to emerge.
A petition to award Urban the Bundesverdienstkreuz
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...
had gathered over 2,500 signatures by the afternoon of 22 December. A donation page to support his family was set up on GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...
and collected more than £110,000 by 23 December by British truck driver Dave Duncan. He was officially thanked by Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom Arkady Rzegocki at a ceremony at Embassy of Poland, London on 9 January 2017. Polish authorities provided funds for the delivery of Urban to his family as well as the costs of the funeral and the family of Urban received a state pension. German authorities refused to reimburse the value of the destroyed truck which belonged to a company run by Urban's cousin.
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
and Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
in Berlin held a vigil
A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...
in solidarity with the victims of the attack. The funeral of Urban was held on 30 December at the Polish village of Banie
Banie (formerly ) is a village in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Banie. It lies approximately south-east of Gryfino and south of the re ...
and was attended by hundreds of people including President of Poland
The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Polan ...
Andrzej Duda
Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the ...
.
The German government reformed its security rules in response to the attack. Among the proposals in the anti-terror plan were easing the deportations of rejected asylum seekers, increasing surveillance of those to be deported and those considered to be terror risks, limiting movement of some asylum seekers within Germany, using electronic tags on those deemed terror threats without a trial, lengthening the period suspects can be held in custody and limiting development aid to countries that don't cooperate in deportation processes. President of Tunisia
The president of Tunisia, officially the president of the Tunisian Republic ( ar, رئيس الجمهورية التونسية), is the head of state of Tunisia. Tunisia is a presidential republic, whereby the president is the head of state an ...
Beji Caid Essebsi
Beji Caid Essebsi (or es-Sebsi; ar, الباجي قائد السبسي, translit=Muhammad al-Bājī Qā’id as-Sibsī, ; 29 November 1926 – 25 July 2019) was a Tunisian politician who served as the 6th president of Tunisia from 31 December 20 ...
meanwhile stated that Europe "must be calm", vowing to take responsibility for the attacks, but insisted that it was necessary to verify citizenship before accepting deportations. The Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
passed a new surveillance law on 9 March in response to the attack as well as other attacks that occurred in Germany in 2016. The law gives priority to public safety when deciding on whether to permit installation of video surveillance in some locations and makes it easier for private companies to install these systems in public places. It also voted for allowing the Federal Police to install surveillance systems for reading and registering licence plate numbers.
Aftermath
In February 2017, the German Salafist mosque organisation ''Berliner Fussilet-Moscheeverein'' was banned by authorities. Amri was said to be among its visitors. In March 2017, the German Muslim community organisation ''Deutschsprachige Islamkreis Hildesheim'' was also banned after investigators found that its members were preparing to travel to the conflict zone in Syria to fight for the Islamic State. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education
The Federal Agency for Civic Education (FACE, german: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (''bpb'')) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education. It is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, B ...
, these examples show that Salafist mosques not only concern themselves with religious matters, but also prepare serious crimes and terrorist activities.
In preparation for the Christmas market 2018, the Breitscheidplatz square and its surrounding were fortified
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
against further terrorist attacks.
On the fourth anniversary in December 2020, a ceremony, which was attended by survivors and relatives of the victims, was held at the Breitscheidplatz to commemorate those killed in the attack. The archbishop of Berlin Heiner Koch said in his prayers that Berlin "was not the same as before".
Timeline of events
* 19 December 2016 – Polish lorry driver Łukasz Urban, 37, has his vehicle hijacked in the heart of Berlin. Shortly after 20:00 local time – The hijacked truck veers into a traditional Christmas market in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Eleven people are killed, Urban is found stabbed and shot dead in the cabin. Shortly after the attack, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum-seeker is arrested nearby based on a description by a witness who had attempted to chase the attacker but lost sight of him.
* 20 December 2016 – Following 24 hours of confusion, the Pakistani suspect is released by police as no evidence could be found that would link the man to the attack. Police state they believe the actual attacker to still be at large, possibly armed and dangerous.
* 21 December 2016 – Anis Amri, a Tunisian man with connections to ISIL, whose asylum request to Germany had been rejected, is announced as the new chief suspect after his documents were reportedly found in the wreckage of the hijacked lorry. He is said to have been using six different names under three different nationalities. Later in the day, a reward of up to €100,000 (£85,000) is offered by German authorities for information leading to Amri's arrest. The country's security is placed under fresh scrutiny following revelations that covert surveillance of the 24-year-old Amri had been discontinued after more than six months, due to police finding nothing to substantiate an initial tip-off.
* 19–22 December 2016 – Amri likely travelled to Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
, the Netherlands, where it is thought he took a bus to the Lyon-Part-Dieu train station in France. He then took a train from Lyon, via Chambéry
Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...
, France, to Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Italy, via the Italian city of Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
.
* 22 December 2016 – Amri's brother Abdelkader urges Amri to turn himself in, adding that his family "dissociate" themselves from him. The spokeswoman for Germany's federal prosecutor office announces that the fingerprints of Amri had been discovered on the outside of the truck, the driver's door and the vertical support beam in its window area.
* 23 December 2016 – 1 am – Amri arrives at the Central Station of Milan, Italy, via Turin. 3 am – Italian Police on a routine patrol in Sesto San Giovanni
Sesto San Giovanni (; lmo, Sest San Giovann, label=Western Lombard ), locally referred to as just Sesto ( lmo, Sest, links=no), is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Lombardy, northern Italy. Its railway station is the northernmost s ...
spot a "very suspicious" male walking through the city center. After being approached by the officers and asked to provide identification documents, the man draws a fire-arm from his backpack and begins shooting. In the ensuing shootout one police officer is injured and the suspect, later identified as Amri, is killed. 10 am – Italian interior minister Marco Minniti holds a morning press conference to announce, with "no doubt", that Italian police had shot and killed the Berlin terrorism suspect.[Louise Burke Patrick Sawer, Josephine McKenna in Milan, Louise Osborne in Berlin (23 December 2016)]
Berlin attack suspect 'pledged allegiance to Isil', as questions raised over how he travelled 1,000 miles across Europe before he was shot dead by police in Milan
– ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved 23 December 2016. Amaq releases a video of Amri pledging allegiance to ISIL during the day.
* 29 December 2016 – Prosecutors confirm the attacker sent a voice message and a picture to a contact before the attack.[
* 4 January 2017 – A 26-year-old Tunisian man who knew Amri since late 2015 and met him a day before the attack is detained. German police state they are investigating him as well as Amri's former flatmate.][ Italian police confirm gun used in attack matches the one on Amri.][
* 10 March 2017 – Italian Interior Ministry announces that it has deported a 37-year-old Tunisian man linked to Amri.][
*19 September 2018 – Italian authorities deported a Tunisian imam who had been sentenced to jail for armed robbery and drug trafficking. He had spread radical propaganda in the prison and celebrated the actions of Amri in the prison located in ]Rebibbia
Rebibbia is an urban zone of Rome, Italy. It was located on the road Via Tiburtina on the north-east edge of the city. Administratively Rebibbia is part of both Ponte Mammolo quarter of Rome and Municipio IV of Rome.
The suburb, first developed ...
. He was moved from the prison to a detention centre and then put on a plane to Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
.
See also
* List of Islamist terrorist attacks
The following is a list of Islamist terrorist attacks.
1940s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2001-2010 2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011-2020 2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
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* List of massacres in Germany
The following is an incomplete list of massacres that have occurred in present-day Germany and its predecessors:
Massacres up until the year 1000
The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the territory of the present-day Germa ...
* List of terrorist incidents in December 2016
* Terrorism in Europe
history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements (separating countries), while other acts have been related to politics (including anarchism, far-right and far-left extremism), religious extremis ...
** Terrorism in France
Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political appr ...
** Terrorism in Germany
Germany has experienced significant terrorism in its history, particularly during the Weimar Republic and during the Cold War, carried out by far-left and far-right German groups as well as by foreign terrorist organisations.
In recent years ...
* 2018 Münster attack
*2020 Trier attack
At 13:45 on 1 December 2020, a man rammed pedestrians with an SUV at high speed in a pedestrian zone in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, killing six people—a 45-year-old man and his infant daughter; a 77-year-old man; and three women aged ...
* 2022 Berlin car attack
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin truck attack, 2016
Truck attack
2016 murders in Germany
2016 road incidents in Europe
Charlottenburg
Christmas in Germany
December 2016 crimes in Europe
December 2016 events in Germany
Hijacking
Immigration to Germany
ISIL terrorist incidents in Germany
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2016
Islamist attack plots and attacks on Christmas markets
Mass murder in 2016
Massacres in 2016
Massacres in Germany
2016 truck attack
Murders by motor vehicle
2016 truck attack
Terrorist incidents in Germany in 2016
Terrorist incidents involving knife attacks
Terrorist incidents involving vehicular attacks
Vehicular rampage in Germany
2010s murders in Berlin
Third Merkel cabinet