BERLIN (REUTERS) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday (Dec 20) she believed the incident at a Christmas market in Berlin which killed 12 people on Monday was a terrorist attack, adding it would be hard to bear if it turned out that a migrant had been the perpetrator.
"There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack," Merkel told reporters.
"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," she added.
She promised that every detail would be cleared up and the perpetrator would be punished with the full force of the law.
Meanwhile, the interior minister of the German state of Saarland said on Tuesday Germany is in a state of war following the market attack. "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," the minister, Klaus Bouillon, told German broadcaster SR.
