19/12/2016 Outside Source

Our top story comes from Germany, a lorry has been driven into a

Christmas market in Burling. These are live pictures. Police say nine

people have been killed, 50 others injured. We will have ongoing

coverage -- Berlin. The gunmen shouted a message about

Aleppo, immediately after firing the shots.

If you are just joining us, let me update you on what is happening in

Berlin. A Christmas market in Berlin has, according to police, been

attacked. A truck has been driven into it. The market was just in

front of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. You can see its South and

South West of the Brandenburg gate. The police department of Berlin have

been a primary source of information on this. A tweet in German says that

we can confirm that nine people have died and many more are injured. One

useful person to follow on this person is Philip Alterman, quoting

that police say the driver fled the scene. One suspect has been arrested

about 100 metres away. A second person in the cab died of injuries

on the scene. That is worth emphasising that it is

ported by local media. As you imagine, the whole area is secured

and sealed off. A lot of emergency services and police at the scene.

We are told by German police that there is no imminent threat in the

area around this church and where the Christmas market was taking

place. We also know German police are advising all Berliners to stay

in. While they are saying there is no threat, they are saying not to

leave your hands. Some local reports say there were

two passengers, and that a codriver died in the incident. I was

mentioning a moment ago that there are multiple reports of one person

exiting the cab of the truck, and then being arrested. A little

earlier I spoke to the deputy editor of a newspaper, who was on his way

home when this happened. He saw the aftermath.

I was on my way back home. I was right on the other side of the

street from the place where the Christmas market is. I hear a loud

noise, the houses were destroyed by the truck, I heard some screens and

that was the first impression. I don't have site of the truck

coming from which direction, but then I heard the noise and the

screams. I went to the other side of the place, and decided to make a

live video on Facebook, which we have on our side now. It was really

horrible what you can see there, the live pictures from Nice. The people

on the ground, and some other people taking care of them.

While you were filming, what did you see?

I saw the broken houses. I saw many destroyed glass on the ground,

fluids, it could be red wine or blood, I don't really know. I saw

some people lying on the ground, and also some people under the truck. It

was really horrible. It was chaotic, as you can imagine.

How busy would this area be on an evening like this so close to

Christmas? Yes, a really busy place. We have

Christmas markets in Berlin. It is not the most popular, but it is in

the western part of the city, and is really popular. There are churches

nearby and it is a busy place. The people go after work to have some

wine, hot red wine or white wine, and to talk to friends and have some

fun. How quickly did the emergency

services arrive after you saw the aftermath of the truck coming into

the market? At the Christmas market in Berlin,

there are some police officers for security as standard. As we now

know, the police officers that were there, there were two people in the

front of the truck. One is -- escaped. There were very many

officers, yeah. A number of you are getting in touch

with various questions and points on this story. Giovanni says, why are

you referring to the incident as an attack? The reason we use the word

attack is because the local police say they believe this is most likely

to be a terrorist attack. It's their phraseology that we'd take a lead

from. "You Need to check the UK Foreign Office website because it

has an update on it. This is the Foreign Office website."

There is a high threat from terrorism. Attacks could be

indiscriminate, including in public places visited by foreigners.

This is the British Foreign Office. It is worth saying what we heard

from Richard Lister a while ago that the Americans already had advice for

Americans travelling to Western Europe, that they needed to take

care in busy places around Christmas that could potentially be a threat.

Or a target, I should say. A couple of other updates, more coming in

from the Berlin police, "Facebook has activated its safety check

feature, use it to find out if your loved ones are safe". Reports of

their being meeting points for relatives being close to the

Christmas markets where authorities are giving out information.

Another update from the police. This is the best source of information we

have got at the moment. "A Suspicious person was arrested near

Breitscheidplatz. Whether it is the driver of the truck is currently

under it investigation." Despite the police saying there is

no ongoing security situation, they are still telling Berliners to stay

indoors this evening. Let's speak to another guest on this

story. We have a security expert at the University of Keele in Germany.

Professor, thank you for your time. Give us your thoughts on what is

happening in Berlin. It looks like this was a terrorist

attack although the police are not totally sure, but everything

indicates that this is something similar to the attack that we have

seen in Nice in the summer of this year. This kind of attack is usually

described as a possible way of attacking. It looks like this was an

attack and it was a very bloody one. I am afraid there might be even more

had people coming out. I was mentioning that the Americans

have advice for American tourists and business people in Germany, do

you think the German authorities were focused on the possibility of

an attack of this nature? There were warnings in the past, in

particular with regard to Christmas markets, but there are many

Christmas markets in Berlin, and it is almost impossible to keep them

all secure. In particular, you might help by building up roadblocks, but

this has not been done here, and it is quite difficult in this place. I

know Breitscheidplatz very well, it is a very huge place, and it is in

between two very crowded streets. It is hardly possible to seal it off.

You say you know this part of Berlin well, most of us don't know it so

well, can you give us an idea of how easy or difficult it might be to get

a truck into the position where we can see at this evening?

It's really easily done, you just have to take one of the big streets

and simply turned the wheel to the right or to the left, and go through

the Christmas market. This was a really big truck. It obviously was a

truck with steel loaded, so it was very heavy. This is one of the

places to attack if you wanted many people. It is quite easy to do this.

While you look at what is happening in Berlin, and we also look at what

happened in Nice, although we don't know how close the parallels are, it

is very difficult to know how to respond to these events, because as

you have been describing, they are almost impossible to stop.

It is almost impossible to stop. What you can do, where we have had

similar experience in the past, is having as many roadblocks as

possible. That is the way to secure such places. We have to make efforts

in this regard, or one has two seal it off, it costs a lot of money, but

you have to be aware of this. I'm afraid that this kind of

awareness was not there, but I might be wrong.

Stay with us if we can, Professor. I want to reiterate the story to

people just joining us. There has been a fatal incident in

Burling. A truck is driven into a Christmas market close to a very

well-known church close to the centre of Burling. Police say nine

people have lost their lives. -- Berlin. Police are telling people in

Berlin to stay inside. People saying not to call it a terrorist attack,

but police have said that they suspect that this truck was

deliberately driven into this Christmas market. Word they are

using is attack, but clearly a number of people were seeing this as

an act of terrorism. We are not saying it is due to radical Islam is

because there is no evidence that we have seen of that being the case at

this moment. Let's remind you of how the local

press in Germany is covering this story. "Terror In Berlin" you can

see, nine dead, 50 injured. This is an image that you will see in lots

of newspapers tomorrow morning, I am certain of that. The area where the

Christmas garden was happening. You can see the lights... Christmas

market. Again, another lead on this story. A

close-up of the cab of the truck. You can see how badly damaged the

front of the truck is, not just with the windscreen not in, but the front

of the truck also damage. A reminder, or the police say that one

person got out of the truck and left it, but was apprehended. There are

also reports in local media that one person died in the truck. We don't

know the circumstances in which that person lost their life.

Again, leading on what is happening in Germany, but also covering the

assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. We will turn

to that story in a minute. A couple of other things to remind you of if

you want to see how the British Foreign Office has responded to the

story, it has posted new advice on its website. The BBC has a live page

being run through the BBC News app and the BBC News website. That is

the latest we have on the situation in Berlin. We are to some degree

will iron on the information being provided to us by the Berlin police.

They are tweeting updates. We will keep you updated on that and speak

to people at the scene, and we are gathering information from people

directly affected. Let's turn to another hugely

significant story, we have new bits of information coming in all the

time, this from Reuters, Turkey's Minister says a joint commission

will be formed to investigate the Russian ambassador's death.

We can also see quotes that have come through as well. This is

Vladimir Putin: Let's speak to my two colleagues

from BBC Turkey and BBC Russia. A provocation is a reference to the

fact that recently relationships between Turkey and Russia were not

good. Yes, they were in deep crisis in

November when Turkey shot down a Russian jet, allegedly, because of

the violation of the Turkish airspace, and experts said it was

because Russia bombed turkeys in Syria, and Turkish clients, for that

matter. But then this summer, taking it more widely, after the

negotiations of the two president, President Putin and President

Erdogan. They have now been more sites, like the statement of blood

amid Putin and other Russian officials, as well as Turkish

officials, that the two parties now are not going to let relationship

flourished again. By doing Putin says it was a

provocation. Do we have insight into what motivated this man?

There is an operation going on right now in Turkey. The family and

friends of gunmen are in custody by now. It is right that Putin and have

threw are in talks. After the incident, they had a phone

conversation. After the incident, Vladimir Putin said it was a

provocation. Tim threw also said it was a provocation.

Did you say that his family and friends are in detention?

They are being questioned by the police about the relationship to

other organisations. What kind of security would have

been at an art gallery attended by a Russian ambassador?

Normally, in that kind of event, the Eraso many guards, and the security

level is really high, especially recently. But they say that the

Russian ambassador is known to be going to these events without

security guards. -- there are many guards.

They were saying that it is very good that the Russian ambassador is

going alone to that kind of event. It shows how he feels secure

himself. But we saw that there are some incidents going on.

As far as I understand, actually, under the Vienna Convention, the

diplomatic is not guarded without special request. So no heightened

security. We know that Vladimir Putin and

president Tim threw get on very well, but they have -- Prime

Minister Erdogan, but the gunman highlighted the fact that the two

countries don't agree. They are speaking about the

provocation and trying to drive a wedge into the Turkish- Russian

relationships, Russia does not have many allies at

the moment. They do need to preserve the relationship. Back in the day,

in different circumstances, the killing of the ambassador would have

been... but this is not the case. Broadly, the security challenges the

Turkey huge, aren't they. They come from so many different sources.

There are so many events happening, and in Turkey, there are different

organisations in Turkey that caused danger.

So it is a problem right now, it's true.

That is translating into President Erdogan's tactics with regards to

security, after the attempted coup. For sure, right now there is a high

security level in Turkey. For example, when we come to the first

question of yours about relations between Turkey and Russia, we can

say that there was an emphasis that the corporation

is still going on. There is also a meeting tomorrow with uranium,

Russian and Turkish Foreign ministers. Some analysts relate the

incident to that meeting tomorrow Iranians.

How can they respond to it? At the moment, they are just words,

not hollow words, but we can't speculate on the meaning. The

terrorist perpetrators will be punished.

Both of you, thank you in much. We appreciate your time today, and

those of you that have the relevant language skills, you can get this

story covered through BBC Turkey and BBC Russia. I spotted a tweet coming

in from one of you watching, claiming, let me see if I can find

it, here we go, Jeremy saying, "The Muslim terrorist who murdered the

Russian ambassador, " what he shouted has been reported by

multiple sources, including the BBC. Thank you for your tweets.

These are the latest pictures coming in from Berlin. They show you the

scene from a little while ago as the emergency services arrived at this

Christmas market in Berlin, into which a truck has been driven. As

you can see, a huge, huge response from the services there, and the

police there. The police, by the way, saying that nine people, at

least nine people have lost their lives, at least 50 are injured, but

there is no ongoing security situation. Local media spoke to one

British man at the scene who saw what happened.

We were in the market outside the Cathedral, and as we were leaving,

the large truck came through. It went just passed me and my

girlfriend, it missed me by three metres, missing her by five. It came

in through the entrance, hitting the sides of the barriers and carried on

past us. I did not see any concrete pollard

is like this driving in. We had them in Birmingham to stop that.

Definitely people got injured. I spoke to two people lying on the

floor with broken limbs, but they were going to be OK. I saw one guy

being dragged away with blood on his face. I helped several other people

lived beside of one of the stalls up.

Let's just reiterate where this all has happened. It's a place to the

south in the centre of Berlin, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial

Church. South-west of the Brandenburg gate. We have some

important details coming in from various police statements, and

increasingly from city authorities as well.

Let me update you on that. This is the police saying that nine have

lost their lives, this is also important from the bureau chief

saying, "Police say driver fled the scene, but suspect has been arrested

about 100 metres away. The second person in the cab died of injuries

on the scene". One quoted a city official, saying that it is not

clear what the circumstances of what the attack was, it could be an

accident or an attack. It does not sit precisely with what the police

have been saying. Here you go, this is the tweet that came through:.

That's not in line with what the police have been saying in the last

couple of hours. This is also interesting, recently the German

police say that to protect the privacy please do not spread videos

from this Christmas market. I have been on the television for the last

hour, before I came onto the television, there weren't a huge

amount of images being shared, the same couple being shared a lot. This

is the police in Berlin saying:. That's in line with the police

advice to stay indoors if you are in Berlin. Thank you for watching, the

story continues to evolve. No doubt, we will get more information in the

next few minutes. Buy buy. The weather is about to turn pretty

wild as we enter the stormiest period of the winter so