| Fire fighters stand beside the truck which ploughed last night into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital Berlin |
Islamic State on Tuesday night claimed responsibility for an attack in which a truck ploughed into crowds in a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday and killed 12 people.
“The executor of the operation… in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic state and he executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries,” the militant group’s AMAQ news agency said.
A Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested on suspicion of killing people by mowing through a Berlin Christmas market in a truck has been released, the Chief Federal Prosecutor’s Office said earlier in the day.
“The investigation up to now did not yield any urgent suspicion against the accused,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The prosecutor’s office said the suspect had made extensive statements during a police hearing, but had denied the offence.
The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin’s most famous landmarks, at about 8pm on Monday. Forty-eight people were injured, 18 severely.