:00:00. > 3:59:59Lee, I am sorry, I had to interrupt, thank you for joining us. You are
:00:00. > :00:15.watching BBC News. Welcome to outside source. We will
:00:16. > :00:20.begin in Berlin where a truck has been driven into a Christmas market.
:00:21. > :00:24.These are live pictures coming in to us here. At least nine people have
:00:25. > :00:30.been killed and at least 50 others have been injured and police suspect
:00:31. > :00:41.it was a deliberate attack. We will have ongoing coverage. We will also
:00:42. > :00:43.report from Turkey were earlier the Russian ambassador was assassinated
:00:44. > :00:49.at an art gallery in Ankara. The gunmen shouted about Aleppo after
:00:50. > :00:54.the attack. We will have the latest. And we are working to gather the
:00:55. > :01:10.latest information from Berlin. That is the hash tag to use.
:01:11. > :01:20.The Christmas market in Berlin that has been attacked as in the west of
:01:21. > :01:30.the city. It is just in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. The police
:01:31. > :01:34.department in Berlin is communicating as and when they have
:01:35. > :01:38.communication. This is one of their most recent tweets telling us that
:01:39. > :01:42.nine people have lost their lives and many are injured. We also have
:01:43. > :01:50.this coming in, to do with who may have been driving this vehicle. This
:01:51. > :02:01.from BBC Monitoring. A suspected driver now being held.
:02:02. > :02:08.This is the live feed coming in from the scene where, as you can imagine,
:02:09. > :02:14.there are huge numbers of emergency services treating those who have
:02:15. > :02:20.been injured and securing the area. There are some local reports that
:02:21. > :02:26.there were two passengers in the truck and a co-passenger died but
:02:27. > :02:29.we're able to confirm that. We also have this with regards to Angela
:02:30. > :02:59.Merkel. Let us bring in the deputy editor of
:03:00. > :03:04.a Berlin newspaper. Thank you for joining us. Tell us what you have
:03:05. > :03:12.seen. I was on my way back home and on the
:03:13. > :03:22.other side of the street from the Christmas market and I hear a loud
:03:23. > :03:33.noise from the houses that were destroyed by the truck and
:03:34. > :03:48.sunscreens. -- some screens. I did not see what from which direction
:03:49. > :03:53.the truck came. It went to the other side and I put a live video on
:03:54. > :04:04.Facebook which is no on our site. It was really horrible. Like the
:04:05. > :04:09.pictures from Nice. The destroyed houses and injured people on the
:04:10. > :04:13.ground. And other people taking care of them.
:04:14. > :04:21.While you were filming, what did you see?
:04:22. > :04:39.I saw the broken houses, broken glass. I saw what could be red wine
:04:40. > :04:49.or could be blood, I don't know. It was really horrible and chaotic.
:04:50. > :04:54.How busy with this area be on an evening like this so close to
:04:55. > :05:00.Christmas? It is a really busy place. We have
:05:01. > :05:16.many Christmas markets in Berlin. It is not the most popular but it is
:05:17. > :05:24.really popular. The church is nearby and there is a big shopping street.
:05:25. > :05:33.It is a busy place. Where people go after work to have some wine and
:05:34. > :05:38.talk to friends and have some fun. And how quickly did the emergency
:05:39. > :05:46.services arrived after you saw the aftermath of the truck going into
:05:47. > :05:50.the market? At the Christmas markets in Berlin
:05:51. > :06:08.there are some police officers for security. As we now know, the police
:06:09. > :06:23.officers couldn't get both of the people in the truck. One escaped.
:06:24. > :06:27.There were many officers. We are looking at live pictures and
:06:28. > :06:32.it looks like the entire area is sealed off. Is that what you have
:06:33. > :06:39.seen? That is right. Not long after the
:06:40. > :06:46.attack, they closed the streets around the area.
:06:47. > :06:55.Thank you very much for making time for us. We appreciate it. Let me
:06:56. > :06:59.show you how some German media are covering this story. They are an
:07:00. > :07:20.invaluable source of information. This shows you the size of the area
:07:21. > :07:25.affected by the attack. Here you get a very clear image of the truck and
:07:26. > :07:35.its smashed windscreen and damaged frontage. Another report carrying
:07:36. > :07:39.coverage of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. We
:07:40. > :07:47.will cover that later but as you can imagine this story in Berlin as our
:07:48. > :07:50.main story. Richard Lester has been looking at this story in the BBC
:07:51. > :07:57.newsroom. Just take us through the basics.
:07:58. > :08:06.We know that's an articulated lorry was driven at some speed at a crowd
:08:07. > :08:11.that was attending a Christmas market in the West part of the city.
:08:12. > :08:19.The kind of market that is very busy at this time of year, a tourist
:08:20. > :08:22.attraction, something that people will fly out to for a few days.
:08:23. > :08:30.Police are saying that nine people were killed and about 50 injured.
:08:31. > :08:35.This happened not too long ago so we won't get the final tally of exactly
:08:36. > :08:41.how many people were hurt and killed for some time. The driver was
:08:42. > :08:45.reported to have fled the scene and ran away. The police said not long
:08:46. > :08:51.ago, about 20 minutes ago, that they have arrested him. He was arrested
:08:52. > :08:58.close to the truck. It was also confirmed that a second person was
:08:59. > :09:07.found dead inside the truck. We don't know how that has happened.
:09:08. > :09:18.The truck cab is quite high up. You can see that the windscreen is quite
:09:19. > :09:23.smashed. It is an ongoing scene. A separate cordoned off zone has been
:09:24. > :09:27.created for friends and relatives of those who were at the market as they
:09:28. > :09:31.try to find out what has happened. The police are treating this as a
:09:32. > :09:35.deliberate attack but have not said formally whether they believe it was
:09:36. > :09:41.a deliberate attack or what the reasons might have been if it was
:09:42. > :09:48.deliberate. The police have a public safety obligation to treat anything
:09:49. > :09:57.like this, particularly after what happened in Nice in July, as a
:09:58. > :10:01.serious incident. I couldn't find any official comment
:10:02. > :10:09.on where this truck came from. I've seen anything? Nothing official
:10:10. > :10:18.but some speculation that there were Polish license plates. That doesn't
:10:19. > :10:22.particularly mean too much because Poland is next to Germany and
:10:23. > :10:26.polished trucks go to Germany all the time. We don't know the
:10:27. > :10:31.nationality of the driver or even if he was legally entitled to be in the
:10:32. > :10:37.truck. He could've been the driver or he could have stolen it.
:10:38. > :10:39.In terms of the whereabouts of this market, presumably wouldn't be
:10:40. > :10:48.difficult to drive any vehicle towards this church or with the
:10:49. > :10:52.market was set up. It is in a pedestrianised area
:10:53. > :10:57.rather than right next to a busy road, as I understand it. The
:10:58. > :11:07.suggestion was that it was deliberately driven at this area and
:11:08. > :11:19.a police officer says it was driven deliberately at the crowd and did
:11:20. > :11:22.not slow down before the crash. Richard will be here in the BBC
:11:23. > :11:35.newsroom over the next few hours so he will bring new information as she
:11:36. > :11:48.gets it. Let me just remind you that a truck
:11:49. > :11:54.has been driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in Berlin and nine
:11:55. > :12:05.people have been killed. You can access the live page on the BBC News
:12:06. > :12:10.apps and website. Chris Phillips is Detective Chief Inspector with
:12:11. > :12:20.London Metropolitan Police and a former county security officer. What
:12:21. > :12:24.are your thoughts on this story? Unfortunately, it looks like a
:12:25. > :12:32.terrorist attack. We have seen lorries go out of control before, in
:12:33. > :12:39.Scotland and in the UK, but this appears to be similar to the
:12:40. > :12:43.incident in Nice a few months ago. That was a deliberate attack by
:12:44. > :12:46.someone who wanted to kill people and that is really difficult to
:12:47. > :12:54.stop. Presumably that is about more than
:12:55. > :12:59.-- presumably that is more about intelligence than any physical steps
:13:00. > :13:06.that can be taken. There is very little as a police
:13:07. > :13:10.officer you can do to stop someone driving a truck into a crowd, other
:13:11. > :13:17.than shoot the driver, and you have to have guns to do that. When
:13:18. > :13:20.someone gets themselves into that mindset, we can only stop them
:13:21. > :13:28.before that, in the radicalisation stage.
:13:29. > :13:35.In terms of how you go about learning lessons from attacks like
:13:36. > :13:47.Nice, what were the conclusions after that attack.
:13:48. > :13:56.We have three types of group trying to do us harm. We have this group
:13:57. > :14:02.who are trained fighters and will at some stage commit an attack. We have
:14:03. > :14:08.the group who are radicalising themselves on the Internet. And we
:14:09. > :14:12.have another group that have not lived any form of Islamic life and
:14:13. > :14:19.probably don't know much about Islamic religion but to say to go
:14:20. > :14:28.out in a blaze of glory as redemption for their sins and this
:14:29. > :14:34.is difficult to stop. It is interesting that you are
:14:35. > :14:45.referring to Islamic radicalism. We don't have confirmation of that yet.
:14:46. > :14:51.If we look across Europe, there are many groups including the far right
:14:52. > :14:55.that try to become more radical. Groups like Isis have told people in
:14:56. > :15:01.Europe to go and do this so the first indication is that it is
:15:02. > :15:07.likely to be that kind of terrorist attack. Even MI6 cue the day and
:15:08. > :15:12.said we are expecting this to happen at some stage. Germany have had a
:15:13. > :15:21.number of attacks that they have managed to stop to this one may have
:15:22. > :15:32.got through. Thank you. If you're able to stay
:15:33. > :15:43.with us I would be grateful. This is the Berlin police.
:15:44. > :15:55.That is the pedestrianised area we were describing in front of the
:15:56. > :16:07.church. If you want the latest updates and preferred through social
:16:08. > :16:26.media, this is worth following. This from Reuters.
:16:27. > :16:35.It is also worth seeing that there are no multiple reports of someone
:16:36. > :16:40.getting out of the truck and running away with being detained before he
:16:41. > :16:51.or she had gone very far. If you want regular updates, follow the BBC
:16:52. > :16:57.live page on the website and on the BBC News apps. Let us go back to
:16:58. > :17:09.Chris Phillips from the London Metropolitan Police. If you had been
:17:10. > :17:12.involved in operations like this, what would you want to know in the
:17:13. > :17:17.aftermath? I just need to make clear that I am
:17:18. > :17:23.not a serving police officer and I retired a few years ago. I was
:17:24. > :17:32.involved in protecting crowded places from terrorism. We have seen
:17:33. > :17:40.more attacks like this over the last couple of years. They need to locate
:17:41. > :17:50.the people that have been involved in this. The first part of this is
:17:51. > :17:56.to identify the people involved. Maybe this is part of a large group.
:17:57. > :18:02.This may be the first in a series of attacks. We saw in Turkey today that
:18:03. > :18:07.an attack has taken place. These things tend to come in blocks. The
:18:08. > :18:11.first thing I would want to do is identify the people involved and
:18:12. > :18:20.contain them any situation where we can arrest them. The other thing is
:18:21. > :18:27.to get witnesses and then to look backwards from the individuals
:18:28. > :18:36.involved to see who they have been talking to, who they communicated
:18:37. > :18:45.with. It is really pleased to get onto that as quickly as possible.
:18:46. > :18:46.Thank you for talking to us. This is how various newspapers in Germany
:18:47. > :19:04.are covering this. What do we know about this Christmas
:19:05. > :19:10.market in terms of how many people would have been there?
:19:11. > :19:15.It is hard to say because there are hundreds of these markets around
:19:16. > :19:18.Germany at this time of year. This is a well-known and quite expensive
:19:19. > :19:23.shopping district in Berlin and one can imagine that the Christmas
:19:24. > :19:27.market would have been very popular and well attended ahead of
:19:28. > :19:30.Christmas. It would've been at the height of its popularity so there
:19:31. > :19:36.would have been a lot of people. It is hard to see how many exactly. It
:19:37. > :19:45.covers a large area and there are a number of stalls so it would have
:19:46. > :19:56.capacity to take in a number of people. There is no the efforts from
:19:57. > :20:02.the establishment in Berlin to provide some sort of message of
:20:03. > :20:09.calm. The idea is to maintain a sense of calm as they try to work
:20:10. > :20:16.out the motive for this attack, if indeed that is what it was. Some
:20:17. > :20:21.more information, the state department has stressed to Americans
:20:22. > :20:30.travelling abroad that they should avoid large crowded areas travelling
:20:31. > :20:34.through Europe. He put a warning out a few months ago that the holiday
:20:35. > :20:39.period was a time for American citizens to be wary. They warned
:20:40. > :20:44.people against going to Christmas markets without taking precaution.
:20:45. > :20:51.The idea that these markets would be a potential target is well known.
:20:52. > :20:55.It is hard to know what proportions you can't take heavy lorry is coming
:20:56. > :21:01.your way. Yes, this is an unsophisticated
:21:02. > :21:08.attack. If it is an attack and is similar to that which happen in
:21:09. > :21:13.July. We are going to turn away from that
:21:14. > :21:20.story to another story of huge significance. You may well have seen
:21:21. > :21:27.this earlier. Russia's ambassador to Turkey has been shot dead by a man
:21:28. > :21:34.shouting about a liberal. This happened any
:21:35. > :21:41.district of Ankara. The ambassador was attending a modern arts centre.
:21:42. > :21:43.Moments before the shooting, behind the ambassador,
:21:44. > :21:45.his assassin waits calmly, rising no suspicion.
:21:46. > :21:59.The gunman is shouting, he says, do not forget
:22:00. > :22:03.So long as these places aren't secured, you will not taste
:22:04. > :22:09.With the ambassador lying close by, his killer
:22:10. > :22:16."Get away, only death will take me from here".
:22:17. > :22:19.Eventually, security forces intervene and the gunman is
:22:20. > :22:26.Amid chaos at the Art Gallery, Moscow is getting
:22:27. > :22:29.reports of what has happened to their ambassador.
:22:30. > :22:34.He was 62 and had been a diplomat for 40 years.
:22:35. > :22:41.The foreign Ministry in Moscow confirmed
:22:42. > :22:45.It is a shocking blow to Russia's relations
:22:46. > :22:48.with Turkey, the countries backing opposite sides in Syria's war, with
:22:49. > :23:01.Turkey strongly opposed to President Assad.
:23:02. > :23:12.The authorities say the gunman was killed but Turkey's president says
:23:13. > :23:17.this was the man responsible for the attack. He was a police officer
:23:18. > :23:24.working in the riot squad in Ankara for two years. Ankara's mayor has
:23:25. > :23:29.described it as a horrendous attack described to drive a wedge between
:23:30. > :23:35.Turkey and Russia. TRANSLATION: This is a cowardly
:23:36. > :23:44.attack designed to ruin relations between Turkey and Syria. -- Turkey
:23:45. > :23:52.and Russia. God willing, both Russia and Turkey will pursue this. The
:23:53. > :23:55.ambassador's death won't be in vain. This is the reaction from John
:23:56. > :24:18.Kerry, the US Secretary of We are joined by two correspondence.
:24:19. > :24:22.What evidence has the government offered to back up the claim that
:24:23. > :24:26.this was the man who carried out the attack?
:24:27. > :24:35.There are so many photos and videos that show the moment the guy she is
:24:36. > :24:47.the ambassador. Russia's ambassador to Turkey was standing there with
:24:48. > :24:56.the gunman behind him. He said, we won't let you be safe over here
:24:57. > :25:04.until our zones are safe, the gunman said. The interior minister said
:25:05. > :25:11.that he was a police officer working for two and a half years.
:25:12. > :25:21.Tell me about the ambassador. He was a career diplomat. He worked
:25:22. > :25:28.for 40 years but kept a low profile. He was only mentioned in the use in
:25:29. > :25:33.a few cases. He served as ambassador to Turkey in recent years and these
:25:34. > :25:36.were stormy years but he was only mentioned in very official cases
:25:37. > :25:41.like when he was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry when the
:25:42. > :25:46.Russian plane was shot down and cheap rates submitted in
:25:47. > :25:54.negotiations. Do stay with us because I want to
:25:55. > :26:00.come back to this story. You can get more on this situation and the
:26:01. > :26:03.situation Berlin online. I will be back in a couple of minutes.