Breaking : possible terror attack in Berlin

[MagicMary1]

twitter.com/ap/status/810931083944534016

This is so sad.

In shock reading about it. My cousin was walking through there about 10 mins before it happened, and posted a pic on Instagram about how busy it was. She is safe thank goodness but is in shock, said the place was full of kids enjoying the market.

Absolutely horrific.

According to sky, Berliners being told to STAY AT HOME, please pass this on to anyone you know in the area.

"BERLIN Is broke - really?"

Oh yes, poor but sexy. There was a series of catastrophic financial decisions about 10 or 15 years ago, we've never really recovered from that. And it's a city full of people who don't earn much. Anything built by central government looks fancy and new - but the basic local infrastructure is crumbling. State schools are scandalously bad.

Yes, driver apparently killed, co-driver arrested.

Cross post arch.

geez what have i missed today? so sad :(

wow arch I always thought Germany doing really well!

Why being told to stay at home apart from the obvious? New rumours?

Arch, it must be a horrid feeling for you right now.

Goodness Miss Marvel - too close.
One girl said she only escaped by moving to some steps to sit down, then it came.

Re the issue of concrete bollards, I remember after the Nice attack listening to an expert on the radio who said that it is a UK-wide policy to have these concrete bollards available at large gatherings and councils/event organisers are strongly urged to use them as well as undertaking serious potential terrorist incidents in their risk assessments. Things aren't the same across the rest of Europe sadly.

U.K. Procedures were stepped up massively in the wake of 7/7 so we've had, essentially, 11+ years of planning and refining of methods and are considered experts in the field.

"There should be some disguised street furniture- bins, bollards, benches etc at the Christmas markets but that all needs a huge amount of investment and planning to implement."

And Berlin is the city that can't even build an airport on time - I think terrorist-proofing the markets is well beyond the politicians.

"My cousin was walking through there about 10 mins before it happened, and posted a pic on Instagram about how busy it was." Really glad to hear that, Ms Marvel. Yes, it would have been packed at that time in the evening - a lot of shops would have closed at 8pm, and this was 15 minutes afterwards, so people would pop into the market on their way home from work for a Glühwein etc.

In our local towns - when there is a xmas market all side roads are closed off entirely - ie xmas light switch on. Of course could still be attacked in other ways but perhaps this is way to go.

People are quick to complain about obvious security here in the UK (good example being guns at newcastle christmas market.) but, as horrible as it is to see, this is the world we live in today. I am incredibly grateful to our intelligence services for working tirelessly to keep us relatively safe in the uk from these threats for as long as they have.

And police, that should have read.

wookie

Why did people complain about that, btw?

Anyone else feel like this is the start of World War 3?

No wandering

And I don't think it's helpful to think that way either

Today does have a bit of a "Franz Ferdinand" feel to it though.

It's a grim day, but history has had many grim days.

lost no.

It was a Russian diplomat, not an archduke.
But this book is an interesting read, concerning these speculations:
www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/09/1913-great-war-emmerson-review

I ought to add to my last post that in the UK we also have the legacy of the threat of IRA attacks: our security services, police, councils, town planners, etc are used to thinking about the possible threats and how to counteract them.

I remember a new shopping centre opening in my home town in the early 90s and a huge thing was made of the fact that there were no rubbish bins in public areas - i.e. nowhere for a bomb to be hidden.

Trees are a good idea though.

I like trees.