:00:13. > :00:19.Our top story comes from Germany, a lorry has been driven into a
:00:20. > :00:24.Christmas market in Burling. These are live pictures. Police say nine
:00:25. > :00:28.people have been killed, 50 others injured. We will have ongoing
:00:29. > :00:39.coverage -- Berlin. The gunmen shouted a message about
:00:40. > :00:55.Aleppo, immediately after firing the shots.
:00:56. > :01:03.If you are just joining us, let me update you on what is happening in
:01:04. > :01:06.Berlin. A Christmas market in Berlin has, according to police, been
:01:07. > :01:11.attacked. A truck has been driven into it. The market was just in
:01:12. > :01:18.front of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. You can see its South and
:01:19. > :01:21.South West of the Brandenburg gate. The police department of Berlin have
:01:22. > :01:26.been a primary source of information on this. A tweet in German says that
:01:27. > :01:31.we can confirm that nine people have died and many more are injured. One
:01:32. > :01:40.useful person to follow on this person is Philip Alterman, quoting
:01:41. > :01:45.that police say the driver fled the scene. One suspect has been arrested
:01:46. > :01:50.about 100 metres away. A second person in the cab died of injuries
:01:51. > :01:58.on the scene. That is worth emphasising that it is
:01:59. > :02:03.ported by local media. As you imagine, the whole area is secured
:02:04. > :02:08.and sealed off. A lot of emergency services and police at the scene.
:02:09. > :02:14.We are told by German police that there is no imminent threat in the
:02:15. > :02:18.area around this church and where the Christmas market was taking
:02:19. > :02:24.place. We also know German police are advising all Berliners to stay
:02:25. > :02:29.in. While they are saying there is no threat, they are saying not to
:02:30. > :02:33.leave your hands. Some local reports say there were
:02:34. > :02:39.two passengers, and that a codriver died in the incident. I was
:02:40. > :02:41.mentioning a moment ago that there are multiple reports of one person
:02:42. > :02:48.exiting the cab of the truck, and then being arrested. A little
:02:49. > :02:53.earlier I spoke to the deputy editor of a newspaper, who was on his way
:02:54. > :03:00.home when this happened. He saw the aftermath.
:03:01. > :03:04.I was on my way back home. I was right on the other side of the
:03:05. > :03:13.street from the place where the Christmas market is. I hear a loud
:03:14. > :03:19.noise, the houses were destroyed by the truck, I heard some screens and
:03:20. > :03:28.that was the first impression. I don't have site of the truck
:03:29. > :03:35.coming from which direction, but then I heard the noise and the
:03:36. > :03:40.screams. I went to the other side of the place, and decided to make a
:03:41. > :03:48.live video on Facebook, which we have on our side now. It was really
:03:49. > :03:59.horrible what you can see there, the live pictures from Nice. The people
:04:00. > :04:04.on the ground, and some other people taking care of them.
:04:05. > :04:11.While you were filming, what did you see?
:04:12. > :04:20.I saw the broken houses. I saw many destroyed glass on the ground,
:04:21. > :04:26.fluids, it could be red wine or blood, I don't really know. I saw
:04:27. > :04:38.some people lying on the ground, and also some people under the truck. It
:04:39. > :04:42.was really horrible. It was chaotic, as you can imagine.
:04:43. > :04:45.How busy would this area be on an evening like this so close to
:04:46. > :04:56.Christmas? Yes, a really busy place. We have
:04:57. > :05:00.Christmas markets in Berlin. It is not the most popular, but it is in
:05:01. > :05:11.the western part of the city, and is really popular. There are churches
:05:12. > :05:20.nearby and it is a busy place. The people go after work to have some
:05:21. > :05:25.wine, hot red wine or white wine, and to talk to friends and have some
:05:26. > :05:29.fun. How quickly did the emergency
:05:30. > :05:35.services arrive after you saw the aftermath of the truck coming into
:05:36. > :05:40.the market? At the Christmas market in Berlin,
:05:41. > :05:55.there are some police officers for security as standard. As we now
:05:56. > :06:04.know, the police officers that were there, there were two people in the
:06:05. > :06:14.front of the truck. One is -- escaped. There were very many
:06:15. > :06:19.officers, yeah. A number of you are getting in touch
:06:20. > :06:23.with various questions and points on this story. Giovanni says, why are
:06:24. > :06:27.you referring to the incident as an attack? The reason we use the word
:06:28. > :06:32.attack is because the local police say they believe this is most likely
:06:33. > :06:41.to be a terrorist attack. It's their phraseology that we'd take a lead
:06:42. > :06:45.from. "You Need to check the UK Foreign Office website because it
:06:46. > :06:53.has an update on it. This is the Foreign Office website."
:06:54. > :06:57.There is a high threat from terrorism. Attacks could be
:06:58. > :07:00.indiscriminate, including in public places visited by foreigners.
:07:01. > :07:05.This is the British Foreign Office. It is worth saying what we heard
:07:06. > :07:09.from Richard Lister a while ago that the Americans already had advice for
:07:10. > :07:12.Americans travelling to Western Europe, that they needed to take
:07:13. > :07:18.care in busy places around Christmas that could potentially be a threat.
:07:19. > :07:23.Or a target, I should say. A couple of other updates, more coming in
:07:24. > :07:31.from the Berlin police, "Facebook has activated its safety check
:07:32. > :07:37.feature, use it to find out if your loved ones are safe". Reports of
:07:38. > :07:40.their being meeting points for relatives being close to the
:07:41. > :07:44.Christmas markets where authorities are giving out information.
:07:45. > :07:49.Another update from the police. This is the best source of information we
:07:50. > :07:54.have got at the moment. "A Suspicious person was arrested near
:07:55. > :08:00.Breitscheidplatz. Whether it is the driver of the truck is currently
:08:01. > :08:04.under it investigation." Despite the police saying there is
:08:05. > :08:09.no ongoing security situation, they are still telling Berliners to stay
:08:10. > :08:18.indoors this evening. Let's speak to another guest on this
:08:19. > :08:24.story. We have a security expert at the University of Keele in Germany.
:08:25. > :08:30.Professor, thank you for your time. Give us your thoughts on what is
:08:31. > :08:37.happening in Berlin. It looks like this was a terrorist
:08:38. > :08:39.attack although the police are not totally sure, but everything
:08:40. > :08:43.indicates that this is something similar to the attack that we have
:08:44. > :08:54.seen in Nice in the summer of this year. This kind of attack is usually
:08:55. > :08:58.described as a possible way of attacking. It looks like this was an
:08:59. > :09:04.attack and it was a very bloody one. I am afraid there might be even more
:09:05. > :09:09.had people coming out. I was mentioning that the Americans
:09:10. > :09:13.have advice for American tourists and business people in Germany, do
:09:14. > :09:19.you think the German authorities were focused on the possibility of
:09:20. > :09:25.an attack of this nature? There were warnings in the past, in
:09:26. > :09:30.particular with regard to Christmas markets, but there are many
:09:31. > :09:40.Christmas markets in Berlin, and it is almost impossible to keep them
:09:41. > :09:44.all secure. In particular, you might help by building up roadblocks, but
:09:45. > :09:48.this has not been done here, and it is quite difficult in this place. I
:09:49. > :09:53.know Breitscheidplatz very well, it is a very huge place, and it is in
:09:54. > :09:58.between two very crowded streets. It is hardly possible to seal it off.
:09:59. > :10:03.You say you know this part of Berlin well, most of us don't know it so
:10:04. > :10:07.well, can you give us an idea of how easy or difficult it might be to get
:10:08. > :10:13.a truck into the position where we can see at this evening?
:10:14. > :10:18.It's really easily done, you just have to take one of the big streets
:10:19. > :10:26.and simply turned the wheel to the right or to the left, and go through
:10:27. > :10:31.the Christmas market. This was a really big truck. It obviously was a
:10:32. > :10:47.truck with steel loaded, so it was very heavy. This is one of the
:10:48. > :10:54.places to attack if you wanted many people. It is quite easy to do this.
:10:55. > :10:59.While you look at what is happening in Berlin, and we also look at what
:11:00. > :11:04.happened in Nice, although we don't know how close the parallels are, it
:11:05. > :11:08.is very difficult to know how to respond to these events, because as
:11:09. > :11:11.you have been describing, they are almost impossible to stop.
:11:12. > :11:22.It is almost impossible to stop. What you can do, where we have had
:11:23. > :11:29.similar experience in the past, is having as many roadblocks as
:11:30. > :11:35.possible. That is the way to secure such places. We have to make efforts
:11:36. > :11:40.in this regard, or one has two seal it off, it costs a lot of money, but
:11:41. > :11:47.you have to be aware of this. I'm afraid that this kind of
:11:48. > :11:50.awareness was not there, but I might be wrong.
:11:51. > :11:56.Stay with us if we can, Professor. I want to reiterate the story to
:11:57. > :12:01.people just joining us. There has been a fatal incident in
:12:02. > :12:06.Burling. A truck is driven into a Christmas market close to a very
:12:07. > :12:13.well-known church close to the centre of Burling. Police say nine
:12:14. > :12:27.people have lost their lives. -- Berlin. Police are telling people in
:12:28. > :12:32.Berlin to stay inside. People saying not to call it a terrorist attack,
:12:33. > :12:35.but police have said that they suspect that this truck was
:12:36. > :12:40.deliberately driven into this Christmas market. Word they are
:12:41. > :12:51.using is attack, but clearly a number of people were seeing this as
:12:52. > :12:54.an act of terrorism. We are not saying it is due to radical Islam is
:12:55. > :12:59.because there is no evidence that we have seen of that being the case at
:13:00. > :13:04.this moment. Let's remind you of how the local
:13:05. > :13:14.press in Germany is covering this story. "Terror In Berlin" you can
:13:15. > :13:17.see, nine dead, 50 injured. This is an image that you will see in lots
:13:18. > :13:22.of newspapers tomorrow morning, I am certain of that. The area where the
:13:23. > :13:29.Christmas garden was happening. You can see the lights... Christmas
:13:30. > :13:34.market. Again, another lead on this story. A
:13:35. > :13:38.close-up of the cab of the truck. You can see how badly damaged the
:13:39. > :13:42.front of the truck is, not just with the windscreen not in, but the front
:13:43. > :13:46.of the truck also damage. A reminder, or the police say that one
:13:47. > :13:51.person got out of the truck and left it, but was apprehended. There are
:13:52. > :13:56.also reports in local media that one person died in the truck. We don't
:13:57. > :13:59.know the circumstances in which that person lost their life.
:14:00. > :14:05.Again, leading on what is happening in Germany, but also covering the
:14:06. > :14:09.assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. We will turn
:14:10. > :14:14.to that story in a minute. A couple of other things to remind you of if
:14:15. > :14:18.you want to see how the British Foreign Office has responded to the
:14:19. > :14:24.story, it has posted new advice on its website. The BBC has a live page
:14:25. > :14:28.being run through the BBC News app and the BBC News website. That is
:14:29. > :14:32.the latest we have on the situation in Berlin. We are to some degree
:14:33. > :14:38.will iron on the information being provided to us by the Berlin police.
:14:39. > :14:45.They are tweeting updates. We will keep you updated on that and speak
:14:46. > :14:47.to people at the scene, and we are gathering information from people
:14:48. > :14:55.directly affected. Let's turn to another hugely
:14:56. > :15:01.significant story, we have new bits of information coming in all the
:15:02. > :15:05.time, this from Reuters, Turkey's Minister says a joint commission
:15:06. > :15:09.will be formed to investigate the Russian ambassador's death.
:15:10. > :15:10.We can also see quotes that have come through as well. This is
:15:11. > :15:33.Vladimir Putin: Let's speak to my two colleagues
:15:34. > :15:36.from BBC Turkey and BBC Russia. A provocation is a reference to the
:15:37. > :15:39.fact that recently relationships between Turkey and Russia were not
:15:40. > :15:46.good. Yes, they were in deep crisis in
:15:47. > :15:48.November when Turkey shot down a Russian jet, allegedly, because of
:15:49. > :15:56.the violation of the Turkish airspace, and experts said it was
:15:57. > :16:02.because Russia bombed turkeys in Syria, and Turkish clients, for that
:16:03. > :16:06.matter. But then this summer, taking it more widely, after the
:16:07. > :16:17.negotiations of the two president, President Putin and President
:16:18. > :16:20.Erdogan. They have now been more sites, like the statement of blood
:16:21. > :16:25.amid Putin and other Russian officials, as well as Turkish
:16:26. > :16:31.officials, that the two parties now are not going to let relationship
:16:32. > :16:35.flourished again. By doing Putin says it was a
:16:36. > :16:40.provocation. Do we have insight into what motivated this man?
:16:41. > :16:43.There is an operation going on right now in Turkey. The family and
:16:44. > :16:51.friends of gunmen are in custody by now. It is right that Putin and have
:16:52. > :16:54.threw are in talks. After the incident, they had a phone
:16:55. > :16:58.conversation. After the incident, Vladimir Putin said it was a
:16:59. > :17:01.provocation. Tim threw also said it was a provocation.
:17:02. > :17:05.Did you say that his family and friends are in detention?
:17:06. > :17:10.They are being questioned by the police about the relationship to
:17:11. > :17:15.other organisations. What kind of security would have
:17:16. > :17:19.been at an art gallery attended by a Russian ambassador?
:17:20. > :17:25.Normally, in that kind of event, the Eraso many guards, and the security
:17:26. > :17:31.level is really high, especially recently. But they say that the
:17:32. > :17:38.Russian ambassador is known to be going to these events without
:17:39. > :17:44.security guards. -- there are many guards.
:17:45. > :17:49.They were saying that it is very good that the Russian ambassador is
:17:50. > :17:54.going alone to that kind of event. It shows how he feels secure
:17:55. > :18:00.himself. But we saw that there are some incidents going on.
:18:01. > :18:10.As far as I understand, actually, under the Vienna Convention, the
:18:11. > :18:12.diplomatic is not guarded without special request. So no heightened
:18:13. > :18:17.security. We know that Vladimir Putin and
:18:18. > :18:27.president Tim threw get on very well, but they have -- Prime
:18:28. > :18:33.Minister Erdogan, but the gunman highlighted the fact that the two
:18:34. > :18:36.countries don't agree. They are speaking about the
:18:37. > :18:40.provocation and trying to drive a wedge into the Turkish- Russian
:18:41. > :18:58.relationships, Russia does not have many allies at
:18:59. > :19:05.the moment. They do need to preserve the relationship. Back in the day,
:19:06. > :19:12.in different circumstances, the killing of the ambassador would have
:19:13. > :19:15.been... but this is not the case. Broadly, the security challenges the
:19:16. > :19:21.Turkey huge, aren't they. They come from so many different sources.
:19:22. > :19:30.There are so many events happening, and in Turkey, there are different
:19:31. > :19:34.organisations in Turkey that caused danger.
:19:35. > :19:38.So it is a problem right now, it's true.
:19:39. > :19:42.That is translating into President Erdogan's tactics with regards to
:19:43. > :19:47.security, after the attempted coup. For sure, right now there is a high
:19:48. > :19:51.security level in Turkey. For example, when we come to the first
:19:52. > :19:53.question of yours about relations between Turkey and Russia, we can
:19:54. > :20:09.say that there was an emphasis that the corporation
:20:10. > :20:13.is still going on. There is also a meeting tomorrow with uranium,
:20:14. > :20:30.Russian and Turkish Foreign ministers. Some analysts relate the
:20:31. > :20:38.incident to that meeting tomorrow Iranians.
:20:39. > :20:42.How can they respond to it? At the moment, they are just words,
:20:43. > :20:46.not hollow words, but we can't speculate on the meaning. The
:20:47. > :20:49.terrorist perpetrators will be punished.
:20:50. > :20:52.Both of you, thank you in much. We appreciate your time today, and
:20:53. > :20:59.those of you that have the relevant language skills, you can get this
:21:00. > :21:03.story covered through BBC Turkey and BBC Russia. I spotted a tweet coming
:21:04. > :21:10.in from one of you watching, claiming, let me see if I can find
:21:11. > :21:11.it, here we go, Jeremy saying, "The Muslim terrorist who murdered the
:21:12. > :21:31.Russian ambassador, " what he shouted has been reported by
:21:32. > :21:37.multiple sources, including the BBC. Thank you for your tweets.
:21:38. > :21:43.These are the latest pictures coming in from Berlin. They show you the
:21:44. > :21:49.scene from a little while ago as the emergency services arrived at this
:21:50. > :21:56.Christmas market in Berlin, into which a truck has been driven. As
:21:57. > :21:59.you can see, a huge, huge response from the services there, and the
:22:00. > :22:03.police there. The police, by the way, saying that nine people, at
:22:04. > :22:07.least nine people have lost their lives, at least 50 are injured, but
:22:08. > :22:15.there is no ongoing security situation. Local media spoke to one
:22:16. > :22:17.British man at the scene who saw what happened.
:22:18. > :22:25.We were in the market outside the Cathedral, and as we were leaving,
:22:26. > :22:28.the large truck came through. It went just passed me and my
:22:29. > :22:33.girlfriend, it missed me by three metres, missing her by five. It came
:22:34. > :22:37.in through the entrance, hitting the sides of the barriers and carried on
:22:38. > :22:43.past us. I did not see any concrete pollard
:22:44. > :22:48.is like this driving in. We had them in Birmingham to stop that.
:22:49. > :22:51.Definitely people got injured. I spoke to two people lying on the
:22:52. > :22:56.floor with broken limbs, but they were going to be OK. I saw one guy
:22:57. > :23:00.being dragged away with blood on his face. I helped several other people
:23:01. > :23:04.lived beside of one of the stalls up.
:23:05. > :23:12.Let's just reiterate where this all has happened. It's a place to the
:23:13. > :23:15.south in the centre of Berlin, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial
:23:16. > :23:21.Church. South-west of the Brandenburg gate. We have some
:23:22. > :23:23.important details coming in from various police statements, and
:23:24. > :23:27.increasingly from city authorities as well.
:23:28. > :23:30.Let me update you on that. This is the police saying that nine have
:23:31. > :23:41.lost their lives, this is also important from the bureau chief
:23:42. > :23:44.saying, "Police say driver fled the scene, but suspect has been arrested
:23:45. > :23:49.about 100 metres away. The second person in the cab died of injuries
:23:50. > :23:55.on the scene". One quoted a city official, saying that it is not
:23:56. > :23:59.clear what the circumstances of what the attack was, it could be an
:24:00. > :24:03.accident or an attack. It does not sit precisely with what the police
:24:04. > :24:12.have been saying. Here you go, this is the tweet that came through:.
:24:13. > :24:18.That's not in line with what the police have been saying in the last
:24:19. > :24:21.couple of hours. This is also interesting, recently the German
:24:22. > :24:27.police say that to protect the privacy please do not spread videos
:24:28. > :24:31.from this Christmas market. I have been on the television for the last
:24:32. > :24:34.hour, before I came onto the television, there weren't a huge
:24:35. > :24:37.amount of images being shared, the same couple being shared a lot. This
:24:38. > :24:50.is the police in Berlin saying:. That's in line with the police
:24:51. > :24:55.advice to stay indoors if you are in Berlin. Thank you for watching, the
:24:56. > :24:56.story continues to evolve. No doubt, we will get more information in the
:24:57. > :25:14.next few minutes. Buy buy. The weather is about to turn pretty
:25:15. > :25:16.wild as we enter the stormiest period of the winter so