A woman stands at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz in front of the memorial to the victims of the attack on 19 December 2016.
© dpa
On the eighth anniversary of the Islamist terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz, politicians and relatives remember the victims.
A service is planned for Thursday at the Memorial Church near Kurfürstendamm. Afterwards, as in previous years, the names of the 13 victims who died will be read out at the memorial at the back of the church where the attack took place.
Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) will be among those taking part in the evening commemoration. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) expressed her sympathy to those affected in advance. "19 December is a day of mourning: for people who were killed or injured in body and soul and who are still suffering from what they experienced today." On 19 December 2016, an Islamist terrorist hijacked a lorry and drove it into the Christmas market. A total of 13 people died as a result of the attack, one of them years later from the consequences. More than 70 people were injured, some of them seriously. The attacker fled to Italy, where he was shot dead by the police.