Polish truck driver shot long before Berlin attack: Report

The picture of Polish driver Lukasz Urban, who was apparently the first victim of the attack in Berlin on Dec. 19, 2016, is shown on a smart phone by his employer in Sobiemysl, Poland, a day after the attack. (AP)

BERLIN: A Polish truck driver whose hijacked vehicle was used to crash into a Berlin Christmas market was shot in the head several hours before the attack and could not have attempted to foil it as previously thought, Bild newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper quoted a confidential coroners report that said driver Lukasz Urban, 37, had suffered not only knife wounds in a battle in the truck cabin but also a gun shot wound to the head some 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 hours before the 8 p.m. attack.
There was no confirmation to the Bild report available.
A total of 12 people were killed in the attack last Monday. The Tunisian assailant, 24-year-old Anis Amri, was shot dead by Italian police in shootout on Friday after a European-wide manhunt. In a video released after his death, he is seen pledging his allegiance to militant group Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
The Berlin state interior minister Andreas Geisel had said on Friday that Urban had “quite probably” tried to disrupt the attack by seizing control of the steering wheel before being shot in the head after the truck veered to the left. It came to a halt after driving for just 60 meters into the market that extended more than 400 meters, averting further deaths.
This helped start a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $170,000 for the family of Urban. The campaign was started by British truck driver Dave Duncan a day after the assailant attacked Lukasz and hijacked his truck.
Meanwhile, calls grew in Germany on Monday for the government to posthumously honour the driver who is believed to have saved many lives during the Christmas market attack.
More than 33,000 people had signed an online petition at Change.org by Monday afternoon, demanding that Lukasz Urban be awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, the highest civilian honour, by German President Joachim Gauck.
Opposition Greens party lawmaker Omid Nouripour meanwhile called on Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to honour Urban with the national Order of Merit.
The Change.org petition said that “according to current reports, the autopsy shows that he struggled with the perpetrator and was severely injured and eventually killed by him”.
“With this heroic act, he probably saved many lives ... For this bravery, he deserves Germany’s highest decoration.”