Pakistani suspect of Berlin truck attack released.

BERLIN: The only suspect held after Monday's deadly lorry attack on a Berlin Christmas market has been released, prosecutors say. They say they do not have sufficient evidence to pursue the case against the man, who has been identified by the media only as Pakistani national Naved B, reported BBC on Tuesday. The man earlier denied any involvement. He was captured in a park after reportedly fleeing the scene. The attack at the Breitscheidplatz market left 12 people dead and 49 hurt.

Before the man was released late on Tuesday, German officials had said they could not be sure if he was involved in the attack. "We have to entertain the theory that the detainee might possibly not have been the perpetrator," federal prosecutor Peter Frank told reporters. The style of attack and the target suggested Islamic extremism, he said.

The man, said to be 23-year-old, was reportedly known to police for minor crimes, but had no links to militant organisations. He arrived in Germany on December 31 last year and his asylum application was still in progress. Meanwhile, Daesh has accepted the responsibility for the Berlin attack. 

Reuters adds: A Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested on suspicion of killing 12 people by mowing through a Berlin Christmas market in a truck may not be the attacker, and the real perpetrator could still be on the run, German police said on Tuesday.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration. Bild newspaper cited security sources as saying the arrested man Naved B had arrived in Germany a year ago. In legal cases German officials routinely withhold the full name of suspects, using only an initial. A security source said the suspect had been staying at a refugee centre in the now defunct Tempelhof airport.

In a dramatic twist, police later said the suspect had denied the offence and might not be the right man. "According to my information, it's uncertain whether he was really the driver," Police President Klaus Kandt told a news conference.

Berlin police tweeted that they were "particularly alert" because of the denial. "Please be alert," they added. Die Welt said police special forces stormed a hangar at Tempelhof at around 4am. A refugee there who gave his name only as Ahmed said security guards had told him there was a raid at around 4am.

Prosecutors declined to immediately comment on the report. "On Tuesday morning, investigators removed the black truck from the site for forensic examination. People left flowers at the scene and notes, one of which read: "Keep on living, Berliners!" One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: "There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack." She added: "I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum."

Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: "We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage."

The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found dead in the vehicle. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a pistol believed to have been used to kill him had not yet been found.

German media said the arrested man had jumped out of the driver's cab and run down the street towards the Tiergarten, a vast park in central Berlin. Several witnesses called police, including one who chased the suspect while on the phone, constantly updating officials on his whereabouts.

The attack fueled immediate demands for a change to Merkel's immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last. "We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said: "We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it." The record influx has hit Merkel's ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year, and boosted support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Senior AfD member Marcus Pretzell blamed Merkel for the attack on Twitter. AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and "radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany".

Merkel and de Maiziere both stressed the need for Germans to remain uncowed by the attack. "We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil," said the chancellor, who discussed the attack by phone with US President Barack Obama and convened a meeting of her security cabinet.

Flags will be hung at half-mast around Germany on Tuesday and Berlin Christmas markets were closed for the day out of respect. The German soccer league announced a minute's silence at all matches on Tuesday and Wednesday, at which players will wear black ribbons.   APP adds: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday strongly condemned the Berlin incident in which a truck ploughed into a Christmas market killing several people.

In a message, he expressed sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives in the incident. The prime minister said terrorism was a common threat to humanity and urged international efforts to curb the menace.