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Truck driver shot dead before Berlin terror attack, terrorist was at wheel — reports

According to the newspaper, the truck was driven by the perpetrator of the terror attack, a native of Pakistan, when it drove into the crowd

© Rainer Jensen/dpa via AP

BERLIN, December 20. /TASS/. The driver of the truck, which plowed into the crowd at a Christmas market in Berlin was shot dead before carrying out the attack, the Die Welt newspaper reported on Tuesday citing Karl-Heinz Schroeter, the Interior Minister of the state of Brandenburg.

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Die Welt says Pakistani immigrant blamed for Christmas attack in Berlin

According to the newspaper, the truck was driven by the perpetrator of the terror attack, a native of Pakistan, when it drove into the crowd.

The regional Interior Minister noted that one of the victims had died of a gunshot wound. According to preliminary data, that was a citizen of Poland, an employee of a logistics company, which owns the truck. According to the German official, the Polish driver was a victim rather than a criminal.

Meanwhile, the DPA news agency reported citing some sources in the law enforcement agencies that the man suspected of carrying out the attack has rejected his involvement in it. He fled the scene of the crime and was detained in the Tiergarten park, a few kilometers away from it. According to an unofficial data, that was a refugee who came from Pakistan earlier this year.

On Monday, at 8:20 p.m. local time (7:20 p.m. GMT), a truck plowed into a crowd shopping in Berlin’s downtown Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz near Kurfurstendamm street. The truck managed to barrel 80 meters into the market. As a result, the terror rampage took the lives of 12 people, while 48 others were hospitalized, with some in serious condition.

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