Nine killed in possible terror attack in Berlin

Lorry ploughs into Christmas market

BERLIN: A lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 50 more in what police said was a possible terror attack.

Ambulances and police rushed to the area after the driver drove up the pavement of the market in a central square popular with tourists, in scenes reminiscent of the deadly truck attack in the French city of Nice in July.

"There are at least 50 injured... some seriously. Some are dead," a police spokeswoman told AFP. Police subsequently said nine had been killed and that one person has been detained over the incident — which comes less than a week before Christmas. According to investigating whether it was a terror attack but do not yet know what was behind it," a police spokesman said.

Germany has been shaken this year by several assaults claimed by the Islamic State group or Daesh and carried out by asylum-seekers. An axe rampage on a train in the southern state of Bavaria in July injured five people, and a suicide bombing wounded 15 people in the same state six days later. In another case, a 16-year-old German-Moroccan girl in February stabbed a police officer in the neck with a kitchen knife, wounding him badly, allegedly on IS orders.