17:23

Police guard a Berlin Christmas market after a truck ran into the crowd. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

More details have emerged about the events leading up to the arrest of Naved B., a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker suspected of being the driver behind the wheel of the truck which careered through the Christmas market.

It had been widely reported that a member of the public had seen him get out of the driver’s cab and had chased him through Berlin’s streets into the central park, the Tiergarten, keeping in contact with police all the time and enabling his arrest at the Victory Column.

However, it has since emerged that the witness saw the man get out of the truck, followed him briefly and then lost sight of him. On the basis of a rudimentary description the witness gave to the police, Naved B. was arrested at the Victory Column shortly afterwards.

Police have since released him on the grounds they found no evidence against him, and say he is no longer a suspect.

He has admitted to police he was at the Christmas market as a bystander, but then ran away out of fear he might be considered a suspect.

But he had no traces of blood or gunshot residue on his clothing and blood smeared clothes and blood found in the cab did not match his blood type, police said.

Police did have some further information about the path the driver of the Scania truck took before driving it through the Christmas market. Police say he drove around the Christmas market once probably in order to survey the best place from which to access it, before driving the truck at around 40 to 50 mph into the crowd.