Germany’s leaders have admitted that the government failed to provide adequate support to relatives of the victims of last year’s terrorist attack on a Berlin Christmas market, and acknowledged security gaps in the run-up to the atrocity. A year after Anis Amri, a Tunisian whose asylum application had been turned down months before, rammed a truck into the crowded market at the Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and wounding 70, the authorities have been criticised for security failings and their clumsy handling of the aftermath of the assault. After being accused of failing to personally contact families of victims, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, met them for the first time on Monday.

“The talks were very open and, from the part of those affected, no holds barred, and pointed to the weakness of our country in this situation,” Merkel said as Germany held a day of solemn commemoration for the victims on Tuesday. “Today is a day of sadness, but also a day of our will to make better things that did not work well,” she said, adding that she had offered to meet the bereaved again in a few months. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the bereaved and emergency workers at a private church memorial that “it is true that some support came late and remained unsatisfactory”. “Many family members and injured – many of you – felt abandoned by the state,” he added, recalling the words of a woman whose daughter was killed in the attack.(theguardian)…[+]