The Polish driver of a lorry which ploughed into the crowd at a Berlin Christmas market was hijacked before the attack, his boss has claimed.
The truck crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages outside the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in West Berlin, killing at least 12 people and injuring 48 others.
German police said they are treating the act as a deliberate terror attack and have arrested a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker called Naved B.
The unnamed Polish man was found dead from gunshot wounds in the passenger seat of the lorry after it was stolen from a construction site on its way to Berlin.
His cousin, who owns the haulage firm where he worked in north west Poland, said his wife had been trying to contact him hours before the attack took place on Monday evening but no one had been able to reach him since midday, the Daily Mail reported.
Ariel Zielinski said there was no way his cousin would have been a willing participant in the attack.
He told Polish TV channel TVN24: “The man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver.
“This is my cousin. I've known him since I was born. My scenario is that they did something to the driver – they hijacked this vehicle because it was practically in the centre of Berlin and they had a good vehicle with which they could do what they did.”
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He said the lorry had been travelling from Italy to Berlin laden with heavy steel.
Mr Zielinski is now reportedly being questioned by Polish police.
The attack has been likened to a similar lorry attack on a Bastille Day crowd in Nice in July.
The suspect ripped off his mask after he was arrested by German police and is now in police custody under armed guard.
Berlin's public radio station RBB-Inforadio cited security sources saying the man entered Germany on 31 December 2015.
News agency dpa, also citing unnamed security sources, said he came to Germany as a refugee in February 2016. Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that the man was known to police for minor crimes.
Police urged people to stay in their homes on Twitter and encouraged them to use the Facebook safety check feature to tell loved ones they are safe.
One eyewitness described “blood and bodies everywhere” after the truck ripped through the crowd.
Australian student Trisha O’Neil said “All of a sudden there was a big boom and the people in front me jumped on top of me.
“All the lights went out and everything was destroyed.
“I could hear screaming and then we all froze. Then suddenly people started to move and lift all the wreckage off people, trying to help whoever was there.”
Additional reporting by AP
