Germany's far-right has blamed Angela Merkel's immigration policy for the Berlin Christmas attacks as the chancellor insisted terrorists will not destroy 'freedom' in the country.

Mrs Merkel has laid white roses at the scene where 12 died after she said she was 'shocked and shaken' by the deadly attack in Berlin last night and admitted it would be 'particularly sickening' if the terrorist was an asylum-seeker.

A suspect arrested after the attack was revealed to be a 23-year-old Pakistani citizen named as Naved B who came to Germany in late 2015 or early 2016. However, police now believe he was not the perpetrator and that the true attacker is 'still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage.'

This morning, Merkel faced a furious backlash over her open-doors policy on immigration having allowed nearly a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa to arrive in the country this year and last.

Marcus Pretzell, a prominent member of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, tweeted: 'When will the German state of law strike back? When will this cursed hypocrisy finally stop? These are Merkel's dead! #Nice #Berlin.'

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Mrs Merkel (left) is seen from above next to a spot where people were killed by the careering lorry

German Chancellor Angela Merkel lays white roses at the scene in Berlin amid fears a gunman may still be on the loose

Angela Merkel (pictured this morning) has said she is 'shocked, shaken and deeply saddened' by the attack on a Berlin Christmas market which left at least 12 people dead

German chancellor Merkel (pictured giving a statement this morning) has come under huge political pressure for allowing nearly a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa to arrive in the country this year and last

The suspected radical Islamic attacker murdered 12 and injured dozens gathered at the market

German police guard the lorry that caused carnage in Berlin

And former UKIP leader Nigel Farage prompted hundreds of angry responses on Twitter this morning when he adde: 'Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.'

Merkel said she believed the incident was a terrorist attack, adding it would be hard to bear if it turned out that a migrant had been the perpetrator.

'There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack,' Merkel told reporters.

'I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that (the) person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum,' she added. She promised that every detail would be cleared up and the perpetrator would be punished with the full force of the law.

The record influx of migrants in the last 12 months has hit Merkel's popularity ratings and boosted support for the AfD with the 62-year-old having recently announced her intention to stand for re-election again next year.

The German leader has staked much of her political capital in opening up Germany's doors to refugees and in doing so divided a reunited land.

MERKEL: BERLIN MARKET ATTACK A 'TERRIBLE DEED' German chancellor Angela Merkel has said she was 'shocked and very saddened' by the Berlin Christmas market attack which left 12 dead and almost 50 injured, describing it as a 'terrible' deed. Speaking at a press conference Mrs Merkel said the government 'assumed' it had been a terror attack, adding that: 'We will find the strength to continue living life as we want to live it in Germany - in freedom, openness and together.' She said: 'It is a terrible deed which one cannot understand. It took their lives; many people are injured, are fighting for their lives and fighting for their health, and in these hours I first and foremost think of these people - the dead, the injured, their families, their friends, their relatives. German chancellor Angela Merkel has said she was 'shocked and very saddened' by the Berlin Christmas market attack which left 12 dead and almost 50 injured, describing it as a 'terrible' deed 'I would like you to know that we - all of us, the whole of the country - are with you in deep sadness.' A man thought to be the driver of the lorry that smashed through the Christmas market has been arrested and security sources believe he is a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker who arrived in Germany in February, German media reported. He is believed to have lived at a refugee accommodation centre in a hangar at Berlin's old Tempelhof airport, which special forces police stormed overnight. Mrs Merkel said: 'We don't have anything for certain, but we must assume it was a terrorist attack. Speaking at a press conference Mrs Merkel said the government 'assumed' it had been a terror attack, adding that: 'We will find the strength to continue living life as we want to live it in Germany - in freedom, openness and together' 'It would be very difficult for us to learn that a human being committed this deed who came to Germany to ask for refuge and asylum. 'It would be terrible for all of the Germans who are very active day by day in helping asylum seekers and refugees. It would be repugnant for those that are helping people that have come to this country and are asking for our help.' She added: 'Millions of people, including myself, are asking ourselves, how can you live with the fact that, while celebrating the festive season where we want to celebrate life, somebody has come along and taken so many lives. I only know that we do not want to, and we cannot live with it. 'We do not want to allow ourselves to be paralysed by terror. It might be difficult in these hours, but we will find a strength to continue living life as we want to live it in Germany, in freedom and openness and together.' Advertisement

What began as an act of great humanity, borne in part out of Germany's lingering guilt for the Second World War, has morphed into a political nightmare for Merkel.

This morning the Islamophobic and anti-immigration populist party AfD wasted no time in laying the blame on Merkel.

'The milieu in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half,' the group's co-leader Frauke Petry said in a statement, in a clear reference to Merkel's decision to let in refugees.

'Germany is no longer safe. It should be the responsibility of the chancellor to tell you this. But since she won't do it, then I'll say it,' Petry declared, demanding 'control over our territory, no ifs and buts'.

It now seems certain that the attacker - who fled from the Polish truck after it came to a halt and was later arrested - killed the driver beforehand. He was found dead in the cab and was initially thought to have been an accomplice.

Carnage: Pictures this morning show the broken wind shield of a truck that crashed into the Christmas market

German chancellor Merkel, 62, has come under huge political pressure for allowing nearly a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa to arrive in the country this year and last

Last night Merkel reacted quickly to the atrocity, with spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeting: 'We mourn the dead and hope that the many people injured can be helped.'

The truck was taken from a building site in Poland. According to the firm owner, Ariel Zurawski, the driver - his cousin - was no longer contactable after 4pm.

The GPS data of the truck shows that between 3pm and 7pm the engine was turned on and off several times. The last time it started up was at 19.34pm, less than 30 minutes before it was used to attack the Christmas market in the heart of west Berlin.

Police say the 25-tonne truck smashed the wooden stalls of the market to matchwood and crushed people caught in its path next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church - a ruin of World War Two that stands as a monument against war.

ISIS in recent weeks had made renewed calls for disciples to carry out atrocities in Europe and German intelligence warned Berlin authorities recently that the city's bustling markets - tourist magnets for foreigners - were vulnerable to attack.

Police say the 32 ton truck smashed the wooden stalls of the market to matchwood and pulverised the humans caught in it path next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church - a ruin of World War Two that stands as a monument against war

ISIS in recent weeks had made renewed calls for disciples to carry out atrocities in Europe and German intelligence warned Berlin authorities recently that the city's bustling markets - tourist magnets for foreigners - were vulnerable to attack

Officials of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the BfV, had for long warned of potentially hundreds of terrorists disguised as refugees making it to Germany hidden among the real migrants.

Merkel has so far refused to amend her refugee policy, however, insisting that Germany can take in large numbers of migrants in the years to come. Allies and critics alike say she ignored the warning signs of calamity at her peril.

The rape and murder of a beautiful young student in the city of Freiburg in October by a 17-year-old migrant was bad for her.

Germany - which this year has seen an ISIS refugee disciple blow himself up outside a cafe in Bavaria, another asylum seeker trying to hack Chinese tourists to death aboard a train and a Syrian refugee detained for allegedly planning to bomb a Berlin airport - was braced for trouble.

Merkel's popularity has waned over the record refugee influx, although her decision to seek a fourth term in next year's elections was greeted with approval from 64 percent of the population as measures to curb the refugee influx - including through a controversial deal with Turkey - began to show results.

A witness to the atrocity spotted the 23-year-old escaping from the scene, at Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and gave chase

But voters had also punished her over her refugee policy, with her CDU party suffering setbacks in five consecutive state polls, while the upstart AfD saw a stunning rise.

In a world upended by Brexit and the surprise election of Donald Trump, questions are flying on how she plans to counter rising populism.

German Marshall Fund analyst Christian Moelling said the 'biggest risk to Merkel is how her own party will react to' the attack.

'Up to now she is the candidate of the conservatives for the chancellor post... but maybe the conservative right-wing will try to get more concessions from her on the questions of internal security and migration,' he told AFP.

What emerges from the investigation into the attack could determine how much of a toll it could take on Merkel politically, said Moelling.

A key question was 'whether we see that this is a kind of lone wolf approach, or whether there is a more systematic approach or group behind it'.

An organised attack would 'support the case that we have been unsuccessful in scanning the people coming into Germany last year and it could be seen as Merkel's policy leading to this increased risk,' he warned.

For now, most mainstream politicians have been adopting a largely cautious stance.

Tributes: Flowers, candles and messages are being left at the scene of the atrocity today as German comes to terms with the terror attack

A suspected radical Islamic attacker murdered 12 and injured dozens by ploughing a lorry into crowds gathered at a market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church last night

But Merkel's Bavarian allies, the CSU, who have been among her biggest critics over the refugee issue, are already gearing up for a fight.

'If it's confirmed that this attack was carried out by someone who travelled to this country as an asylum seeker, then in Berlin there should be a fundamental reflection on how this whole refugee reception is organised,' Joachim Herrmann, CSU interior minister of Bavaria state, told radio station Antenne Bayern.

He also called for an open dialogue about the risks that Germany is facing due to the arrival of many refugees.

'We need to talk about this question, what risks do we face now with this big number of refugees here,' he said in a separate interview with regional radio Bayerische Rundfunk.

The population could not be expected to 'keep going like that, in which we face a higher risk of attacks by people from a radical Islamist background.'

But Spiegel Online called for cool heads to prevail, saying 'whoever exploits the situation, like the cynics at the AfD are, to incite people against others, is doing the work of terrorists.

'They want to divide us, they want to destabilise use and provoke a cultural war. Their hate is aimed at creating new hate,' it warned.

GERMANY DID NOT VET REFUGEES PROPERLY AND SAW CRIME SOAR Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed refugees at the height of the migrant crisis The migration crisis is Europe’s greatest challenge since World War Two. Europeans are being obliged (without anyone having registered a vote on the matter) to deal with the fall-out from colossal state failure in South Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, writes MICHAEL BURLEIGH. But the crisis also exposed the bankruptcy of existing migration policy as freedom of internal movement, and the mirage of a multicultural society, was replaced by identity politics and a new regime of border controls and fences. Liberals everywhere would like us to believe that Chancellor Angela Merkel is the one sane politician left standing in Europe. As a consensual, pragmatic scientist, and a clergyman’s daughter to boot, Merkel has a massive flaw. She makes panicky decisions. One was to close down all of Germany’s nuclear power stations in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. But the biggest happened last year, when she reacted to distressing scenes from Europe’s exterior borders by allowing 1.2 million migrants and refugees into the country. This was despite the fact that many Germans do not want a multicultural society even at the same time they are hag-ridden by the Nazi past from expressing identity politics. Any temporary feel-good effect from this liberal gesture rapidly evaporated amidst scenes of chaos in a nation that worships orderliness. So great were the numbers involved that Germany’s rudimentary ability to control, register and vet these people was overwhelmed. Some were fingerprinted, but German law prohibits taking DNA samples except from criminal suspects. German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks in London over the Syrian refugee crisis, but was unusual among European leaders in welcoming migrants at the height of the crisis in summer 2015. So great were the numbers involved that Germany’s rudimentary ability to control, register and vet these people was overwhelmed While there is computer software that enables border control and police officers with handheld devices to identify inconsistent names, or which can ask five simple questions that only someone really from Damascus or Idlib could answer, no one had thought to acquire it. Since any detailed vetting occurred retroactively, after the migrants were dispersed to temporary refugee centres, the authorities were clueless as to whether or not the young ‘Afghan’ asylum seeker wasn’t in fact an economic migrant from Pakistani. Worse, because of geographical proximity to Austria and Hungary, the majority of these migrants debouched into Bavaria, the richest German state, but whose authorities were overwhelmed too. Bavaria is governed by the Christian Social Union party, a coalition partner of Merkel’s own Christian Democrats. It is fair to say that it is more Catholic, more socially conservative, and tougher on law and order than the bigger party. They really did not like what Merkel had inflicted on them since it meant huge costs like hiring thousands of extra policemen and teachers. This row has caused much ill-feeling within Merkel’s coalition. There was also much ill-will towards asylum seekers in Germany’s formerly and economically disadvantaged Communist East, where people have absorbed less of western liberalism and extreme parties of right and left do relatively well. Since the war the CSU have insisted that there should be no space for a party further to the right than them. That suddenly changed too. Only founded in 2013, as a Eurosceptic party dominated by professors of economics, the Alternativ für Deutschland has reconfigured itself as the main opposition voice to Merkel’s migration policy. Merkel’s hesitant response to a crisis of her own making has not boosted her popularity. While belatedly there was a lot of tough-sounding talk about repatriating those who failed to be granted asylum status, the numbers of those flown back to Africa or South Asia were insignificant, especially after some states elected to refuse to take back their own fleeing citizens. This was often the case with convicted criminals. 500, 000 rejected asylum claimants are still living in Germany. According to the latest statistics, of the half million asylum seekers who registered for work last year, only 34,000 have a job, mostly in ‘hospitality’. A government scheme to create 100,000 jobs has yielded 5,000 posts. This problem became glaring once the consequences of allowing so many single young males into Germany became all too apparent, even though the liberal mainstream German press refused to discuss this problem. While many migrants came from societies (like Afghanistan) which boast of their own hospitality towards strangers, they showed scant respect for the host society they had washed up in. Specifically, some of them had feral attitudes towards women. The latter found themselves groped on the streets or in public swimming baths, where new signs explained to migrants that women swimmers were not looking for a new boyfriend called Abdul or Kareem. The government grossly neglected the difficulty of transplanting people from regressive societies into the cosily provincial world of Germany small town life, with carnivals and 2,500 Christmas markets which have a very Christian theme in a country that is still relatively religious compared with Britain or France. Last New Year, women in Cologne and elsewhere were subjected to mass robbery and sexual assault by marauding bands of asylum seekers. Worst of all, in early December this year, a 17 year old Afghan asylum seeker raped and murdered 19 year old Maria Ladenburger who was cycling home. She was found drowned in a river. But it turned out not to be the worst of all, since yesterday a Pakistani asylum seeker hijacked a 32 ton truck and smashed it into a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing twelve people and injuring 50 more. For in the absence of vetting, how could anyone detect terrorists lurking within the mass of migrants and refugees? Christmas markets have been a favoured target since the (failed) 2000 bomb plot in Strasbourg. By simply using a speeding truck, terrorists do not expose either a large network or a logistical trail. You can make it hard to buy fertilizer and hydrogen peroxide in bulk, but you cannot stop people driving trucks. Where does this leave Merkel who is facing election to a fourth term next September? Horrific events like yesterdays will undoubtedly enhance the appeal of the radical insurgent Alternativ für Deutschland. Currently polling on 12% they may see their vote reach 20% or more. The familiar combo of candles, flowers and earnest sermons for toleration won’t cut it with many German voters anymore. Merkel has tried a few ‘tough-seeming’ gestures like banning the burqa than very few Muslims in Germany wear, while doggedly sticking to the moderate centre ground. She calculates that the AfD will mainly subtract working class voters from the Social Democrats, the third partner in her coalition. But many influential figures in her own administration (notably the tough Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Horst Seehofer of the Bavarian CSU) warn that unless she acknowledges widespread anxieties about her own policies, and tacks right to accommodate these sentiments, she will see a massive hemorrhaging of conservative votes to the AfD. As a longtime ‘moderniser’ of the CDU, Merkel would never forge a coalition with them. If there are more attacks like yesterday’s Merkel may not even make it to next year’s election. She will not be the first or last European political casualty of a well-meaning gesture that has proved catastrophic. :: Michael Burleigh is a historian and foreign affairs expert Advertisement



