German Authorities Release Man Detained In Deadly Berlin Truck Attack

By Frederik Pleitgen, Angela Dewan, James Griffiths, Darran Simon and Ralph Ellis

BERLIN (CNN) -- The man detained after a truck crashed into a Berlin Christmas market has been set free, Germany's general prosecutor said in a statement Tuesday.

"The investigations thus far have not produced urgent suspicion against the suspect," the statement said.

Berlin Police President Klaus Kandt said earlier that officials could not be certain that the man in custody -- who was picked up about a mile away from where 12 people were killed and 48 others injured -- was responsible for the attack on Monday evening.

German authorities are investigating the incident as a terror attack.

The owner of the trucking company said the slain driver of the truck had asked to finish his duties early so he could buy a Christmas gift for his wife.

Berlin police say that the Polish driver was not at the wheel during the attack and German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere said that the man appeared to have been shot dead.

Speaking to CNN affiliate TVN24, truck company owner Ariel Zurawski described the Polish driver, who has not yet been identified, as a "good man."

Zurawski says pictures shown to him by the police to help identify the victim were "very terrifying."

Based on the picture he had seen, he believes the driver, who was 1.8 meters tall and 120kg (240 pounds), may have tried to fight off the assailants.

'Truck was driven back and forth'

Zurawski said they had spoken on the phone earlier Monday when the driver had requested to finish his duties early but also spoke of the driver's apparent unease. He had described the area where he was going to unload as "weird."

Zurawski said in the interview that the driver talked to his wife at 3 p.m. local time, but at 3:45 p.m. the truck's GPS was showing that it was being driven back and forth with the engine being started and shut down again.

He said that in his opinion it looked like someone was learning how to drive the truck. According to Zurawski, it didn't move again until 7:40 p.m.

The company owner said that the truck had shown up in different parts of Berlin but knew that the driver -- whose company nickname was "Inspector" -- never wasted any time and always followed the rules.

He said he knew something terrible had happened to him when he saw the tragedy unfold in the market.

Merkel: 'Hard to bear'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the scene of the attack on Tuesday afternoon, saying earlier it would be "especially disgusting" if anyone in the attack had been given asylum.

Dressed in black and making her first public comments on the attack late Tuesday morning, she called for unity in the country.

"I know that it would be especially hard to bear for us if it was to be confirmed that a person (who) committed this act ... was given protection and asylum in Germany," Merkel said.

"This is a very difficult day. I, like millions of people in Germany, am horrified and deeply sad about what happened yesterday in Berlin."

Monday's attack could cause further political upheaval for Merkel, who has come under criticism over her government's generous acceptance of refugees. Germany has taken in more than 890,000 asylum seekers in the past year, a marked difference to other European nations.

But a backlash has been growing, fueled in part by Islamist terror attacks in Germany and across the continent.

'It felt like slow motion'

Before the attack on Monday evening it was a quintessential German Christmas scene at Breitscheidplatz: Trees strung with lights, vendors serving candied fruit and waffles, the smell of gluhwein -- German mulled wine -- wafting through the cold December air.

American Shandana Durrani was at the market, at the foot of the Keiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and had stopped to reply to a text message when the truck rammed into the crowd at around 8 pm.

She was lucky to have stopped, she said, as the truck mounted the curb, mowing people and stalls down just 20 feet in front of her, sending everyone "running, scurrying, screaming."

"I heard some popping and thought maybe there was a guy with a gun," she told CNN.

"People just started running and dropping their gluhwein."

She said that the it looked as if the driver had just mounted the curb and lost control, and that the whole thing probably lasted a mere 10 seconds.

"It probably didn't last very long, but it felt like it was in slow motion (as I ) tried to get away from it."

Security concerns

De Maizier said that Christmas markets would be closed for a day of mourning on Tuesday. "But to cancel them would be wrong," he said, adding they would hopefully reopen the following day.

MÃnch, of the Federal Criminal Office, said that authorities had assessed the likelihood of an attack at Christmas markets recently.

The attack bears resemblance to one in Nice, France, in July, when a truck rammed into a crowd gathered to see Bastille Day fireworks, killing 86 and injuring more than 200 people.

Terror groups including ISIS and a branch of Al Qaeda have encouraged their followers to use vehicles to stage attacks.

But no one has so far claimed responsibility for Monday's attack.

Both the U.S. and U.K. governments had warned their citizens of potential security threats in Germany.

The U.S. had issued a blanket travel warning for Europe, saying there was "credible information (which) indicates terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks."

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