A survivor of an accident with a Polish truck is rescued on a stretcher near a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square near the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm avenue in the west of Berlin, Germany, December 19, 2016.

A truck ploughed into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German capital Berlin on Monday evening, killing at least 12 people, and causing multiple injuries, the police said.

“Sadly we know that 12 people were killed on Breitscheidplatz, 48 others are in hospital, some of them severely injured,” Berlin police said on Twitter.

The incident occurred on the Breitscheidplatz square, near the location of Berlin’s iconic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church along the Kurfürstendamm shopping mile.

The police are treating the event as an apparent terror attack. The driver of the truck is believed to have fled the scene; however, no arrests have been made so far.

The incident evoked memories of an attack in France in July when Tunisian-born Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people.

Police shot the driver dead in the Nice attack claimed by ISIS.

Television pictures from Berlin showed the truck standing amid debris by small wooden stalls that make up the ‘Christkindlmarkt’ of which there are several in Berlin at this time of year.

Police cars and ambulances converged on the scene.

[vuukle]