Upon the evenfall of Monday, December 9th, 2016, a witness-identified vehicle parading a Polish license plate veered into a marketplace commemorating the holiday season—chiefly, Christmas Eve and Christmas. Reportedly, the catastrophe transpired in the bustling public square of Breitscheidplatz, stationed in Western Berlin, Germany.
Albeit the tally for causalities are uncompromisingly increasing, nine individuals are confirmed to be deceased at the bloodstained hands of the lorry’s operator, whilst approximately fifty injured are on the mend with a medley of medical treatments.
Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief at a German tabloid publication entitled “Bild”, affirmed from his respective viewpoint that, “”It looks like something that was adapted by Nice.”
Reichelt’s statement is in reference to the detrimental, harrowing havoc that was wreaked in Nice, France, throughout the Promenade des Anglais on July 14th, 2016; otherwise distinguished as “Bastille Day”, or “la Fête nationale”, for the French National Holiday. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian townsfolk of France, piloted his nineteen tonne cargo automobile into the assemblage of celebrators, annihilating eighty-six innocents, and incapacitating four hundred and forty-four. Although Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was latterly executed in an altercation with French law enforcement, national President François Hollande broadcasted a prolongation to the state of emergency that had been instituted prior with regards to the November of 2015 Paris, France, terrorism. Presently, the French state of emergency will be unremitting until January 26th, 2017, whilst federal agencies conduct their investigations on “ground zero” of the assault.
However, French law enforcement is undetermined whether Monday’s Berlin affair pertains to terrorism, and has accomplished minimal information on the perpetrator. In spite of this, their squads will be diligent to bring to light the nuclei of this paralyzing bombardment.
Emma Rushton, a media representative for the UK Scout Association and the UK Scouts Media, tweeted a chronicle of her petrifying experience as an eyewitness on the front lines.
Lorry just ploughed through Christmas market in #berlin. There is no road nearby. People crushed. I am safe. I am safe pic.twitter.com/63iWMmdSKr
— Emma Rushton (@ERushton) December 19, 2016
Additionally, Rushton purported that the motor vehicle itself was accelerated to forty miles per hour with no demonstration of braking to bypass the flock throughout Breitscheidplatz square. Throughout her assortment of testimonies to news resources inclusive of Sky News, the BBC News Hour, et cetera, she divulged that, “It wasn’t an accident.”
Rushton professed the barbarously stony-hearted details of her confrontation to the aforementioned Sky News: “”We were sitting and drinking—then we heard a really loud bang, some of the Christmas lights being pulled down.
‘We saw the articulated vehicle going through people and through the stalls and just pulling everything down. Then everything went dark. It was very difficult to be there.
‘There were lots of people screaming and yelling. The stall we bought our mulled wine from was completely crushed. People were tearing off wooden panels to get out.”
‘We went back to our hotel, we just didn’t want to stay. We didn’t know if something else was going to happen.'”
As mass hysteria unfurls throughout Berlin, Germany, and neighboring countries, developments throughout law enforcement’s formal inquiry will be steadfast, for the occurrence is characterized as the second utmost death-dealing vehicular offensive since that of the previously described Nice blitz.
Affinity Magazine relays their condolences to the beloveds of the dearly departed, and furthermore, a whirlwind recovery to the wounded.
Be strong; be courageous; be kind to one another.
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