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Perpetrator of terrorist attack in Berlin armed and still at large — media

The Pakistani detained on Monday is not the person that could have been involved in the terrorist attack, according to media

BERLIN, December 20./TASS/. The suspected perpetrator of the terrorist attack at a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday is still at large and can be armed, German Die Welt newspaper reports on Tuesday referring to a German law enforcement source.

According to media, Berlin police officers also assume that the Pakistani detained on Monday is not the person that could have been involved in the terrorist attack.

Earlier police reported that right after the terrorist attack, police officers managed to detain the suspected attacker with the help of eyewitnesses. The detained man is a 23-year-old Pakistani immigrant, who entered Germany at the end of 2015 as a refugee using the "Balkan route". According to police, he had hijacked a truck that was carrying cargo from Italy and was deliberately crushing people in the market.

A truck rammed into a crowd of Christmas shoppers at a fair in downtown West Berlin, on Breitscheidplatz near Kurfurstendamm Street at around 8:20 p.m. The truck steamrolled on for another 80 meters deeper into the market’s territory. As a result, twelve people were killed and 48, some in critical condition, were taken to hospital.