Berlin Truck Attack: Germany 'Tense' Amid Manhunt for Terror Suspect

BERLIN — Detectives hunting the terrorist behind the deadly truck attack on a crowded Christmas market in Berlin have received more than 500 tips but it wasn't clear early Wednesday whether investigators had any concrete leads.
Germans were urged to be "vigilant" after a suspect who was arrested moments after the atrocity was released without charge.
Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded when the stolen 27.5-ton truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages in the capital's Breitscheidplatz on Monday night.
The city's police department posted on Twitter that "508 leads regarding [the attack] were received by our colleagues answering the tip-line … thank you."
There were signs of a struggle in the truck's cab and traces of the suspect's DNA were found, regional state broadcaster RBB reported, saying officers searched local hospitals in case the culprit had sought medical treatment. A second arrest was made overnight but that suspect was also released, it added.
Meanwhile, Der Spiegel reported that an identity document found in the cab suggested the suspect might be Tunisian. None of those reports could immediately be verified by NBC News.
Most of the approximately 60 Christmas markets in Berlin were expected to re-open Wednesday, although Breitscheidplatz remained closed off by forensic teams.
Police in Cologne expressed fear of copycat attacks and implemented extra armed patrols but said closing Christmas markets was not an option.
Andre Schulz, national chairman of the Federation of German Detectives, expressed optimism that the investigation would be quick.
"I am relatively confident that we will perhaps [Wednesday] or in the near future be able to present a new suspect," he told a discussion panel on ZDF.
Authorities on Tuesday released a 23-year-old Pakistani migrant, identified



only as "Naved B.," who had been taken into custody Monday night.
Reports that a brave witness chased the suspect from the truck turned out to be untrue, Die Welt reported Wednesday, adding that the Pakistani was arrested "on the basis of vague descriptions."
His cellphone "did not contain any evidence of links to terrorist groups and the asylum-seeker vehemently denied the accusations — untypical for a radical religious extremist," Focus magazine reported.
The person responsible could now be hiding be among an estimated 500 known Islamist sympathizers living in Berlin, the magazine said.
Officials have yet to find a pistol that is believed to have been used to kill the first of the 12 victims — a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering steel beams.
The driver, identified by his boss in media interviews as 37-year-old father-of-one Lukasz U., may have fought the suspect even as the attack unfolded, according to reports. "There must have been a fight," an anonymous investigator told Bild.
Among the injured was Inaki Ellakuria, who underwent surgery for a broken tibia and fibula on his left leg. He said he knew immediately it was no accident.
"It came fast, too fast to be driving off the road accidentally," the 21-year-old student from Spain tweeted only minutes after the attack. "It has swept me and ran over both of my legs."
The media arm of ISIS issued a statement claiming the attack was done in its name, although it gave no evidence and did not identify the attacker, according to analysts Flashpoint Intelligence.
Germany is not involved in anti-ISIS combat operations but has fighter jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the U.S.-led coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.