Truck Crashes into Berlin Christmas Market

Truck Crashes into Berlin Christmas Market

At least 12 people died and 45 more were injured on Monday, December 19, when a truck, similar to a semi or 18-wheeler, plowed through a Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany.

Around 8 p.m. local time, the truck jumped the sidewalk near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The vehicle traveled 50-80 meters before stopping, taking down festive booths, overturning tables and smashing into crowds enjoying the massively popular tourist attraction.

Police believe there were two people in the truck’s cab at the time of the incident. One passenger was found dead inside the truck while the other jumped out of the truck. A suspect was arrested very near to the scene.

Tuesday morning, Police tweeted that they were unsure the person they detained was in fact the driver of the truck. They are still searching for the suspect.

The license plates on the truck belonged to a Polish truck company. When police and reporters called on the company for more information, they told them the truck was headed to Berlin from Poland on business and was being driven by the cousin of the company’s owner. The owner did not believe that his cousin would carry out an attack like this, and told police that he had lost contact with the driver around 4 p.m. that afternoon. There are suspicions that the truck had been hijacked.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Berlin police say they suspect the incident was a terrorist attack. In a statement, the police added that they were working swiftly and with “necessary care” in the investigation.

The incident comes just months after the vehicle attack on Nice, France during Bastille Day celebrations. More than 80 people were killed and dozens more injured when a truck evaded barriers and drove through the crowds.

Just recently, an Islamic publication wrote to encourage readers to plot attacks using vehicles to create mass casualties. German Christmas Markets around the country were placing barriers and extra security guards around the perimeter of the festivities to protect against something just like this.

Featured

  • The Yellow Brick Road

    The road to and throughout Wednesday's and Thursday's ISC West was crowded but it was amazing. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West
  • An Inside Look From Napco at ISC West

    Get a look into the excitement at ISC West 2025 from Napco. Hear from some of their top-tech executives live from the show floor. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West
  • Upping the Ante

    I am not a betting man in terms of cards, dice, blackjack or that wheel with the black marble racing around the circumference of a spinning wheel, but I would bet on the success of ISC West this year. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West
  • It's Show Time

    I am one of those people that likes to see things get bigger and better. As advertised, ISC West is going to be bigger (more exhibitors) and better (more attendees). It’s show time in Las Vegas. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West

New Products

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.