As if the news from Turkey weren't enough, there was an apparent attack on shoppers at a Berlin Christmas market today as well, leaving at least nine dead.
Police arrested the suspected driver near the scene.
One social media user, Emma Rushton, said that people were "crushed", and that the lorry had been "going too fast" at around 60 kilometres per hour.
Bild newspaper posted a picture of a large Scania truck with its windshield smashed out on the pavement alongside the market.
Witness Jan Hollitzer told Al Jazeera that the truck glided about 50 metres through the market.
"It was really horrible, there were many casualties and injured people," he said. "I saw people hit by the truck and also people under the truck ... I can tell you those are images you don't want to see."
The lorry was travelling "very fast" through a pedestrianised area, Hollitzer said.
Witness Mike Fox told the Associated Press news agency that the lorry missed him by only about three metres as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.
"It was definitely deliberate," said the tourist from Birmingham, England.
