Polish PM says Europe must unify to fight terrorism

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Tuesday (December 20) Poland shared the grief of the victims and their families after Monday’s attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

Szydlo told reporters in Warsaw that the attack was a reminder that Europe had to unify in its fight against acts of terror.

“It is with great sorrow and sadness that we all join the victims, the families of victims in their grief. Europe must become unified in the fight against terrorism, Europe must take effective action to protect its citizens. This is our duty,” Szydlo said.

Berlin police are investigating leads that the truck that ploughed into a crowd at the market, killing 12 people and injuring 48, had been stolen from a construction site in Poland. They said a Polish man was found dead inside the vehicle but added he was not in control of it.

German magazine Focus cited Karl-Heinz Schroeter, interior minister of the state of Brandenburg, as saying one of people found dead at the scene was shot, and that was it was probably the Pole who was a victim, not a perpetrator.

Police said the man suspected of steering the truck had fled the crash scene and was later arrested.

A German security source said the suspect was a 23-year-old migrant from Pakistan known to police for committing minor offences. Investigators suspect the driver of a truck did so intentionally in a terrorist attack.

The truck crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church – left as a ruin after World War Two – in the heart of former West Berlin.

It evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That was claimed by Islamic State.