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At Least 12 Killed in Truck Attack in Berlin; Turkey Vows to Hunt Down Those Connected with Russian Ambassador Killer; Update on Aleppo Evacuations. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired December 20, 2016 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[08:00:15] ANDREW STEVENS, HOST: I'm Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream.

Terror in Berlin: at least 12 people are killed when a truck plows into a crowd and police are telling locals to be on alert.

A political assassination in Turkey. Russia's ambassador shot and killed in Ankara. That attack linked to Syria's brutal civil war. A full

breakdown of a bloody 24 hours straight ahead.

German police say the suspect in the terror attack at a Christmas market in Berlin may

not have been the driver of the truck that plowed into the crowd. 12 people were killed, dozens

were injured, some critically. The suspect is in custody, is a recent asylum seeker most likely

from Pakistan.

He's believed to have entered Germany within the last year. Well, the truck belongs to a Polish company. There were indications it was hijacked

on its way to make a delivery in Berlin.

And as you can see, officials have cleared the truck now from the scene. They plan to reopen the road and the market.

Well, CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on exactly what happened. And just to warn you now, the video you're about to see shows the scene right after the

attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bodies strewn across the walkway, Christmas market stalls in pieces. This is the

immediate aftermath of yesterday's deadly attack in central Berlin. Investigators say around 8:00 p.m., this black semi-truck steered

deliberately into a crowd of holiday shoppers hitting at least 60 people and flattening several structures without slowing down.

SHANDANA DURRANI, WITNESS TO THE BERLIN MARKET INCIDENT (through phone): Nobody knew what was happening. Everybody just started scurrying and

running. PLEITGEN (voice-over): The truck, load with 25 tons of steel, dragging some pedestrians 50 to 80 feet before toppling a Christmas tree

and coming to a halt.

EMMA RUSHTON, WITNESS TO THE BERLIN MARKET INCIDENT (through phone): There were people bleeding. There were people lying in the pavement.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Police have one man in custody. He was discovered about a mile and a half away from the scene. German police and intelligence

officials tell CNN the suspect in custody in relation is a recent refugee from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Another man, a Polish national found

dead in the passenger seat.

The owner of the Polish company to which the truck belongs telling reporters that he lost contact with his driver after he arrived in Berlin

from their worksite about two hours away and suggesting that truck may have been hijacked.

The carnage, eerily reminiscent of the July terrorist attack in Nice, France when a truck driver ran over and killed more than 80 people during

Bastille Day celebrations.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is saying we must, quote, "Assume this is a terrorist attack. And if it is confirmed the suspect is a refugee, it

would be, quote, "Especially disgusting."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Well, Fred joins us now live from Berlin.

Fred, I just want to confirm that police are confirming that the man in custody, they are not confirming that he's the driver, is that right?

PLEITGEN: You're absolutely right. They are not confirming that he is the driver and they've even come out and said they think that it may not

actually be the driver that they currently have in custody, Andrew.

And one of the reasons why they are saying that is, obviously, this man they do have in custody

right now is being interrogated. Apparently, he denies all the allegations and they certainly will be checking out to see what sort of alibis he has

and whether those alibis actually check out.

Now, what the police are saying is, look, at this point in time we're not sure we have the right

guy, therefore, everybody here in the city needs to be on the lookout, because they say they are sure

that if there is still somebody out there, if the person who was driving the truck was indeed somebody

different, then that person might very well be armed, Andrew, and the reason why they say that is that, of course, when they discovered the truck

after it came to a standstill, only a couple of yards from where I'm standing right now, they discovered a body on the passenger seat that had

gunshot wounds.

However, the police have never been able to retrieve the weapon that was used to shoot that person that was found on the passenger seat. So they

are saying if there is still somebody out there, that person is armed and no doubt that person is dangerous, because that will probably be the person

who was driving the truck through the Christmas market.

Obviously, all this taking place at 8:00 p.m. last night here, around 8:00 p.m. last night here

when this truck just absolutely plowed through this Christmas market, annihilating a lot of the market stands, hitting a lot of people, of

course, on the way, and really sending shockwaves, not just through the city, but of course through this entire country -- Andrew.

STEVENS: And Fred, no one yet claiming responsibility.

[10:05:21] PLEITGEN: No, you're absolutely right. No one has claimed responsibility at this point in time, which is, of course, something that

would also make it difficult for the authorities to ascertain who exactly might be behind this, what the motivations behind this were, was this some

sort of larger plot, was this an individual acting on his own.

One of the things, however, that they are now piecing together is that because this was a truck

with Polish license plates, a Polish truck, it belonged to a Polish company, they had been missing their driver at some point on Monday. They

believe that the truck appears to have been hijacked and then used to perpetrate the act that happened here last night.

However, it is difficult to ascertain whether it's some sort of larger group behind this, or whether this was someone, an individual, acting on

his own, Andrew.

STEVENS: And, Fred, if you can tell us what's been happening down at the market where you are today, and when and even if that market will resume

trading in the near future.

PLEITGEN: Well, you know, the Berlin police and the authorities here have announced

that they do want to open the area that you see behind me for people to go through once again. It's unclear whether or not the actual trading on this

Christmas market will continue. Certainly, it wouldn't be the same as it was before.

But what's been happening today is that the authorities here have been busy, first of all, obviously, doing forensic work. We saw that throughout

the night. We saw a lot of forensic units here on the ground, including units with search and rescue dogs, but also a lot of technical equipment,

as well. There were also drones that were being flown over the area to get a better idea of the path that

this truck took.

And then in the fairly early morning hours what happened was that the authorities here detached the tractor from the trailer of the truck, they

then towed the tractor away, and then brought in another truck to move the trailer out. So both the tractor and the trailer of this semi have now

been brought out of here and now the authorities are busy continuously doing forensic work, obviously also building up

a case, because we have to keep in mind that this is also now very much a criminal investigation, as well -- Andrew.

STEVENS: All right, OK, Fred, thanks very much for that. Fred Pleitgen joining us from the market, just on 2:00 in the afternoon in Berlin.

The German interior minister said just a few moments ago that there is no doubt this was

a terror attack. Let's bring in terrorism expert Saijan Gohell. And he's the international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation.

Saijan, thanks so much for joining us. I just want to pick up on something that Fred said there, there hasn't been any claim of responsibility. In

Nice, we saw ISIS claiming responsibility for that similar attack involving a truck. So, does it surprise you there hasn't been claims of

responsibility in Berlin at this stage?

SAIJAN GOHELL, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: To some degree it would be surprising that if ISIS could take credit, then they would react very

quickly, and the fact that they haven't, it raises questions as to why that is the case, because certainly they've been

calling for these type of attacks in Rumaya (ph), which is the online magazine, which means Rome in ancient Arabic.

It talked about using vehicles as lethal weapons to kill people. It even mentioned that Berlin

needed to be targeted. So it fits into their modus operandi for sure.

The fact that there is no claim still creates a lot of doubt as to whether it was necessarily ISIS or a lone wolf totally operating independently.

As the Germans conduct their investigation, more information, hopefully, will be revealed.

STEVENS: Authorities had also warned there could be attacks around the Christmas period, that even singled out Christmas markets as a possible

target.

How well is Germany equipped to deal with terrorism? What's their response likely to be to this?

GOHELL: Well, the Germans have faced a whole spate of plots and small scale attacks this year. Keep in mind that only last week a 12-year-old

boy that had been groomed online by ISIS was arrested for trying to plant explosive devices in a Christmas marketplace

in Ludwig Schaafen (ph). And that was just one example. There have been a number of incidents also earlier in the year in the summer.

So, German authorities have tried to keep track of all the plots. They managed to disrupt many. But it's the simple attacks, the lone wolves, the

ones that aren't involving large cells, much tend to bypass security. And as we know, the counterterrorism agencies have to be lucky all the time.

The terrorists need to be lucky just once.

[08:10:02] STEVENS: Why is Germany -- you know, you cite those examples of other plots that have been uncovered, but why is Germany now such a target?

I mean, it doesn't fight in the Middle East. It has been taking refugees from the Middle East. What is it that is making Germany a target now?

GOHELL: Well, as you mention, Germany has taken many refugees, well over a million, from Syria. It has shown its humanity and decency to those who

lost their homes and livelihoods from the tragic war in Syria itself and also been many other refugees and migrants

from across the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

What is unfortunately becoming the problem, Andrew, is that ISIS and other groups like that are

exploiting the situation to create social tensions, to create repercussion and backlash that will exasperate tensions. And that is why we're seeing

many refugees being used and groomed to carry out attacks.

It's very deliberate tactic by groups like ISIS to foment further problems inside the country. And unfortunately, incidents like this, whether

directed by ISIS or inspired, it only feeds into the narrative that these terrorist groups want to exploit.

Saijan Gohell, thank you so much for your analyst.

Now, turning to our other big story today, in the Turkish capital Ankara, a Russian investigative team has arrived after the assassination of the

Russian ambassador to Turkey. The body of the slain ambassador will be repatriated to Russia today, that's according to state media.

He was gunned down by a Turkish police officer at an art gallery on Monday. Well, the Russian President Vladimir Putin and a Turkish president, Recep

Tayyip Erdogan, say the assassination will not hurt relations between their two countries.

Well, for more on this, CNN's Nic Robertson is in Ankara and Matthew Chance is in Moscow.

Nic, let's begin with you. This attack is being described in some circles as a revenge attack for Moscow's support of the Syrian government in the

civil war.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, what it does is sort of highlight the tensions that exist here in Turkey at the moment. So many

people here have been witness to what was happening in Syria. They hear all about it. They see it on their news. The government here has

supported the rebels in Syria. Turkey itself is housing, taking care of millions upon millions of Syrian refugees, so it's a very live issue here.

So when you have the eastern enclave rebel-held enclave of eastern Aleppo that was sort of

falling under Russian and Syrian military pressure in the past few weeks, that caused anxiety in this country, and you had protests outside, for

example, the Russian consulate in Istanbul just a week ago.

So you had these tensions here, but at the same time you had President Erdogan recognizing that if he wanted to have influence in Syria, he now

needed to work with Russia, and he was negotiating, helping to negotiate part of that truce to get civilians out of the eastern side of

Aleppo.

So he's sort of doing, if you will, is going against his previous path of supporting the rebels as his prime course of action and now changing

course, but perhaps not taking his people with him. And this is why the gunman shouting "don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria" as he shoots the

Russian ambassador certainly makes people very well aware of that situation here.

On top of that, you now have the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying that it is down to the Turkish authorities here to provide security for

Russian diplomats when they are inside Turkey, citing the Vienna convention. So this is something very, very fundamental to the diplomacy,

but now you have the Russian authorities pointing this out. Why, essentially, why at a time of tension was Turkey not providing, clearly

they're saying between the lines, adequate protection for Russian diplomats?

STEVENS: All right, Nic, thanks very much for that. So, if you just stay with us a moment.

Let's go to Matthew Chance now in Moscow.

Matthew, first Putin flew very quickly to close ranks with Erdogan, to put his support behind Erdogan on this issue. Why?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the relationship with President Erdogan has been improving steadily in the past

several months, particularly hit a low point, as we've heard, back in November of last year when Turkey shot a Russian war plane out of the skies

near Syria. They said it had strayed into Turkish airspace.

If this incident had happened back then or shortly afterwards, we'd be looking at a cataclysmic

breakdown between the two countries, but it's not. It's happened now. And President Putin said that he's not going to let this incident, this

assassination, derail his efforts to normalize the relationship with Turkey and to try and forge an agreement with Turkey and to try and forge an

agreement with Turkey over the situation in Syria.

In fact, the foreign minister of Syria is in -- sorry, the foreign minister of Turkey is in Russia

today talking about Syria with Russian officials and Iranian officials, as well. The Russian defense minister has just come out with a statement

saying that we, both Russia and Turkey, will be able to act as the guarantors of further settlement and implementation of the Syria cease-fire

agreement. And so Russia wants to bring Turkey on side when it comes to forging some kind of agreement that will be

in Russia's favor in Syria, and doesn't want an incident like this, however tragic, to derail its efforts.

STEVENS: OK, thanks for that, Matt Chance.

Back to Nic in Turkey. Nic, what's been happening today? What have the Turks been doing

today to get to the bottom of this assassination?

ROBERTSON: Well, sure. I mean, what we've witnessed here is the teaming up of the Turkish

investigators with the Russian investigative team arrived a little earlier. They went into the building behind me here. I can see the Russian

investigative team in their sort of white forensic lab coats. y have the blue plastic covers over their shoes, gave the appearance that they were

sort of going into what is an active crime scene.

They didn't seem to hang around here too long, but what we've heard both President Erdogan say and President Putin, as well, is that it's important

to get to who was actually behind this gunman, who was supporting him. So you have seven people now detained in relation to the gunman, four of his

family members, four of his immediate family members, several others.

This is not uncommon in Turkey for family members to be detained at a time like this,

but that seems to be the direction that the investigation is going in. No hard, concrete facts from the

government of what they are learning so far. The ambassador has now, his body has now been repatriated to Russian authorities.

A few hours ago he's been driven to the airport here in Ankara ready to be flown back to

Moscow, as well, Andrew?

STEVENS: Nic Robertson in Ankara. And Matthew Chance in Moscow, thank you.

Now, Turkey has been a target of a number of recent terror attacks. On Saturday, a car bomb went off near a bus in central Turkey, killing 13

soldiers and wounding 50 other people. Last week, 44 were killed and more than 150 hurt in twin suicide bombings near a football stadium in Istanbul.

A Kurdish separatist group claimed responsibility for that.

In August, more than 50 people were killed by an ISIS suicide bomber at a wedding party in the

city of Gaziantep.

Now, ISIS is also suspected of a June attack at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport that left 44 people dead.

Now, hours later, Turkish police arrested a man who fired into the air outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara. He was heard shouting "I swear to god,

and don't play with the U.S." in Turkish, as officers led him away.

No one was injured.

The U.S. has closed its embassy and consulate in Turkey today.

Despite the killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, talks in Moscow on the war in

Syria are set to go ahead as planned. We have the latest on the families making their way out of

Aleppo, a destroyed city.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is reacting to the recent attacks across three countries. We'll tell you what he had to say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:58] STEVENS: Welcome back. We want to bring you up to speed now on our top news, the terror attack in a Christmas market in Berlin. 12 people

were killed, dozens are injured, 18 critically.

Now, you can see the truck that plowed into the crowd being towed away. Now, German officials say the suspect is being held as a recent -- the

suspect being held is a recent refugee, most likely from Pakistan, but police cannot at this stage confirm whether the person they actually are

holding was, in fact, the driver.

The country plans to continue Christmas markets, but to ramp up security. Chancellor Merkel says it would be disgusting if this was committed by

someone who had been given asylum.

The interior minister spoke just a short time ago, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS DE MAIZIERE, GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): The incident yesterday is so difficult to talk about, but all of us, to me,

something is very important. It is about our liberal, free lifestyle and that must not be destroyed by people who try to do it in such a horrible

way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: The German interior minister there echoing the words of his chancellor, Angela Merkel, just a few minutes before that.

Now, another top story we're following, Russian investigators have landed in the Turkish capital Ankara after the assassination of the Russian

ambassador to Turkey. The shooter gunned down the ambassador at an art exhibition and yelled "do not forget Aleppo."

It comes as Moscow hosts talks with Turkey and Iran about the besieged syrian Sity. Evacuations in eastern Aleppo resumed on Monday. Turkey says

some 37,000 people have now left, and the evacuation is expected to wrap up by Wednesday. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to have its

observers monitor the whole process.

Well, Syrian's UN representative is against the move, but the U.S. insists that this is not negotiable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: With that presence, there may be some deterrence of what happens along the journey out of eastern Aleppo,

and there, even if people are fortunate enough as they see it to get on buses, we have seen people pulled off buses, their valuables stolen, and,

of course, many reports of men and people in the fighting age range being either detained,

forced to the front lines, or never heard from again.

BASHAR JA'AFARI, PERMANENT SYRIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UN: France and Britain's insistence on presenting and adopting such resolution is just

another part of the continued propaganda against Syria and its fight against terrorists.

While we respect the security council's resolutions, we are aware of the re-purpose of their efforts, which is to protect the terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Well, for more, our Muhammad Lila joins us from Hatay in Turkey.

Muhammad, first of all, let's just talk about these numbers of evacuations. The Turkish authorities say 37,000 so far. Is there any way to

independently verify that?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, no. But you have to remember that these evacuations were actually brokered by Turkey, so they

have a very deep and a very significant interest in getting these rebels outside of Aleppo. And, of course, the agreement was signed on to by

Russia, as well.

So one challenge is independently verifying these numbers, but the bigger challenge where all this is taking place is how many people are left in

Aleppo in the eastern part of Aleppo to begin with.

We knew that, you know, about a week ago, more than a week ago, we were reporting that tehre might have been 100,000 left. The UN came down and

said, well, there might be less than that, maybe 50,000. So right now we're not sure how many people are left, but one good aspect of what's been

happening today, Andrew, is that the Turkish officials, as well as other relief groups on the ground, have said they expect these evacuations to be

finished by tomorrow.

What effectively, that means is that there will be no more civilians, rebels, or anyone else in

eastern Aleppo. It will be completely evacuated and as a result it means all of Aleppo will belong to the Syrian government.

As of right now, Muhammed, are you aware, is there still military action taking place in Aleppo?

LILA: No, we have not gotten reports of fighting going on inside Aleppo. There are reports of some skirmishes in other parts of the country.

Certainly, the campaign to topple the Assad government continues in other parts of the country, but we haven't gotten reports of any attacks in the

eastern part of Aleppo.

But you know, that's always a very tenuous thing and a very fragile thing. And you know, so far it's holding up and that's certainly a good sign.

STEVENS: All right, Muhammad, thank you very much for that, joining us from Turkey.

Now, the UN high commissioner for human rights is urging the Philippines to investigate its president. Rodrigo Duterte has said that he killed

criminal suspects while he was mayor of Davao. The UN human rights chief says that violates the Philippines constitution and clearly counts as

murder.

Well, the high commissioner also points out while Mr. Duterte claims to target drug dealers, children as young as 5 years old have died in the

vigilante killings in the Philippines.

Now, still ahead here on News Stream, the Berlin Christmas market attack is not the first time a truck has been used as a weapon this year. Just

ahead, a look at why terror groups are making this their weapon of choice. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:30:10] STEVENS: Now, the terror attack on the Berlin Christmas market is especially alarming, because the weapon was something almost anyone

could use: a truck. It's a tactic we're seeing more and more of, as CNN's Tom Foreman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eighty six people dead, more than 400 injured. The attack in Nice, France, five months ago, proved how deadly a

big vehicle can be. In that case it was a huge rented truck traveling close to 60 miles an hour plowing through holiday revelers.

GREG KRENTZMAN, NICE ATTACK SURVIVOR: I had a choice to either jump to my right or jump to my left because the truck was swerving, so I had to make a

decision which ways to jump. I decided to jump to my left and thank God I did because if I didn't I would have been dead.

FOREMAN: Purposeful attacks using vehicles have happened plenty in recent years. At University of North Carolina in 2006, a man rams his SUV into a

crowd. Luckily no one dies.

But in the Netherlands in 2009, a car slams into a parade and eight people are left dead. In Canada, in 2014, a pair of soldiers are run down in a

parking lot and one dies. That same year in Israel, a driver veers off the road and steps on the gas to hit people waiting for a train. Two were

killed.

And in France, a pair of incidents one right after the other leaves 20 people injured and one dead. In each case questions of terrorism were

raised and the prevalence of such attacks prompted homeland security to issue this warning during the holiday season a half dozen years ago.

"Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct an attack with minimal prior training."

Among the warning signs, "Vehicles reinforce with homemade metal plates on the front and large trucks in heavily traffic pedestrian areas at unusual

times especially if they are driving erratically."

Still just last month it happened again. At Ohio State, a young man ran into a crowd with his car before he was shot by a police officer and became

the only fatality that day.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is plenty of available evidence to indicate that this individual may have been motivated by

extremism and by have been motivated by a desire to carry out an act of terrorism.

FOREMAN: The simplicity and effectiveness of these attacks are clearly why the terrorist groups keep pushing them on the internet knowing that all it

takes is one radical to get one started and yet it requires a lot more resources to detect such a plan or stop it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Tom Foreman reporting there.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump condemned the attacks in Berlin and Ankara. He was wasting no time assigning blame either. For more, our Sara

Murray joins us from Palm each in Florida.

And Sara, what has the president-elect been saying?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Well, as you pointed out, even though authorities are still investigating not only what happened in Turkey, but

also what happened Berlin, Donald Trump certainly did not wait before he deemed these acts of radical Islamic terrorism, and I want to read you a

portion of what he had to say about Berlin. He was saying that radical Islamic terrorists and ISIS continue to persecute Christians, and he said

these terrorists and their regional and worldwide networks must be eradicated from the face of the Earth, a mission we will carry out with all

freedom-loving partners.

And of course, there have been questions about who Donald Trump might align the U.S. with as

president. He's been kinder to Russia than past presidents have been, at least in his early comments, so

this gives you a window into his thinking, his view in the wake of instances like this, as anyone willing to fight ISIS alongside the United

States and maybe going forward under a President Trump that could be Russia could be considered a potential ally of the U.S..

STEVENS: That's the thing, isn't it? I mean, he's looking for allies. This looks like it's been a new world order. Has he given many clues about

exactly how he would approach this, what he would do? And and I'm thinking more globally, Sara. I mean, we have heard a lot on the campaign trail

about focusing on Muslims, on potential terrorists at home, but what about around the rest of the world?

MURRAY: He hasn't really given a lot of specifics about exactly what he would do. And, in fact, in a number of occasions he said he doesn't want

to make those plans public, because he wants to have the element of surprise, essentially, on his side. But it does call into question who

would the U.S. ally itself with in approaching these? Would Donald Trump continue drone strikes when it comes to battling ISIS? Would he adopt a

new approach? We don't really have a good sense...

STEVENS: Sara, I'm going to have to interrupt you, I'm afraid. We just want to go to a live event. The German federal anti-terror prosecutors

office is speaking now about the terror attack. Let's listen in.

(GERMAN FEDERAL PROSECUTORS OFFICE PRESS CONFERENCE)

[08:51:42] STEVENS: Listening there to a press conference from the investigative team at the

Department of Justice in the criminal prosecutor's office in Berlin.

Just to give you a brief press conference really updating the media on what is ongoing at the moment. And at this stage, not really ruling anything

in or ruling anything out, although they are chasing, as they say there, several leads.

They said that they confirmed or reaffirmed there had been no claim of responsibility, and they also said that at this stage they cannot clarify

whether the person they have in custody was actually the driver of that truck that killed 12 people in the Christmas market. They are still

investigating that.

They also said that looking at the modus operandi, the MO, of that attack, that they were

looking at an Islamist background, sort of linking it possibly to Islamist, but again, not really ruling things in and out at this stage.

Let's go to Fred Pleitgen now, who's also been listening to the press conference. Fred is in Berlin. He's been covering this story since it

broke.

Fred, what was your take away from that press conference?

PLEITGEN: Well, I mean, it's pretty clear these guys are obviously the criminal investigation authorities. And so, therefore, they are the ones

who are going to be trying to build a case. Obviously, this has now been pushed to a federal case rather than a state case, which obviously shows

that the authorities believe this is a federal crime, i.e., they think this could very well be terrorism, but it's also

not unusual for them to say at this point in time they can't rule anything out.

Because in the end, what they're going to have to do is build a case that at some point in time when they do find a suspect that they believe was

behind this, they are going to have to put that case forward and make it airtight in front of a court.

Now, all of what that press conference was saying pretty much meshes with what we're

hearing from the Berlin Police Department, as well. They reconfirmed they do have a man in custody. He denies all the charges against him. And,

therefore, they are not sure whether or not he is actually the person who was at the wheel when that truck was plowing through the Christmas market

that you see behind me.

The Berlin police force is saying, look, in light of all that, in light of the fact that they are

obviously interrogating him, waiting to see -- and seeing if any of his alibis check out, they are saying at this point in time everybody here in

the city should very much be on the lookout. And if they see anything suspicious, to notify the police and don't try to do anything themselves.

So they're saying, look, we have someone in custody, we're questioning that person, but we're not sure whether that person is the person who is

actually behind the wheel. And if it's not that person, then there could potentially still be someone out here on the loose

who very well may be armed as well, because keep in mind, Andrew, on the passenger seat of that truck after if finally stopped, they did find the

body of another man who had gunshot wounds. And so, therefore, someone was obviously shot in that incident and they never managed to find a gun, so

they believe that anybody who might be out there, if there is still indeed somebody, could very well be armed.

But again, the person that we just saw speaking is really the prosecutor's office that are putting the case together for the future to then be able to

prosecute the person that, hopefully, the police department here at some point will be able to catch, if he's not already in custody, Andrew.

STEVENS: Fred, it's interesting listening to that press conference, they are also talking about the risks they had already assessed of an attack

like this on a target like that. And they said that they had done very serious assessment, and this came to pass, there was actually an attack. I

just wonder in the aftermath of this horrific attack, has there been any blame of the authorities to not -- for letting this happen, for not being

able to stop this?

PLEITGEN: No, I don't think there's essentially been any blame, but there certainly has been the questioning about whether or not -- not really the

assessment, but whether the security measures were in place here and maybe are in place in other places, whether or not they are sufficient, because,

obviously, there was additional security measures that have been put in place in the past couple of months, specifically in light of the fact that

you had the Christmas time, you have these Christmas markets, which you know terrorism analysts would say are very much soft targets, because you

have a lot of people who are very unprotected in a very confined space. And so obviously, if you for instance

have someone with a vehicle plowing through there, that obviously can cause mass carnage.

Also, if you had someone with a gun going through there, that would obviously be the same, as well. And in the run up to this, the German

authorities were saying, look, of course, there is a threat of terror attacks during the Christmas time and there certainly is the danger

of terror attacks at Christmas markets, because they essentially are a fairly easy targets and very, very difficult to secure, Andrew.

STEVENS: Yeah, and as the prosecutors say, what are we going to do, hold these things underground? A very, very difficult situation for the

prosecutors there. Fred, thanks so much for that. Fred Pleitgen, of course, in Berlin. Our coverage of this will continue. 12 people are

dead. A man is in custody.

Authorities at this stage are saying that they still can't confirm whether the man they have in custody is, indeed -- excuse me, the driver of the

lorry, but investigations will be continuing. They'll also be looking, given that the MO, the way that attack was carried out, they are looking at

an Islamist background of this, but as yet, there's been no claim of any responsibility.

More coverage on the Berlin attack coming up on the other side of this break. Stay with us.

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