2016 Berlin truck attack
| 2016 Berlin truck attack | |
|---|---|
Aftermath of the attack | |
| Location | Breitscheidplatz, Berlin, Germany |
| Coordinates | 52°30′18″N 013°20′08″E / 52.50500°N 13.33556°E |
| Date | 19 December 2016 20:02 CET (UTC+01) |
| Target | Christmas market |
Attack type | Vehicle-ramming attack, truck hijacking, shooting, mass murder |
| Weapons |
|
| Deaths | 13 (including a victim who died in 2021) |
| Injured | 56 |
| Perpetrator | Islamic State |
| Assailant | Anis Amri |
| Motive | Islamic terrorism and retaliation for German support of War against the Islamic State |
On 19 December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. The truck was eventually stopped by its automatic brakes. The perpetrator was 24-year-old Anis Amri, an unsuccessful asylum seeker from Tunisia. Four days after the attack, he was killed in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. An initial suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. Nearly five years after the attack, a man who was critically injured during the attack died from complications related to his wounds, becoming the 13th victim. The attack is the deadliest act of terror in Germany since the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing in Munich, which killed 13 people and injured 211 others, and as of December 2023, it remains the worst Islamist terrorist attack by number of casualties in German history.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack and released a video of the perpetrator, Anis Amri, pledging allegiance to the terror group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.