THE POLISH DRIVER of the truck used to kill 11 people in Berlin last week was shot hours before the incident, German media reports.

Twelve people died in the crash at a Berlin Christmas market on 19 December, including Lukasz Urban. Today, citing a post-mortem report, Deutsche Welle newspaper says that Urban was dead hours before the attack.

German paper Bild says that the driver was shot in the head between 4.30pm and 5.30pm on the day of the attack, some three hours before Anis Amri plowed the 40-tonne truck into the crowded market.

Police had said that Urban was shot dead by the suspected jihadist attacker shortly after driving the truck into the crowd, having first stabbed him. Early reports said that he struggled with the attacker, saving many lives.

A petition calling on the German government to posthumously honour the Polish truck driver has received some 37,000 signatures.

Amri went on the run after the deadly rampage and was the focus of a Europe-wide manhunt before he was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later after opening fire first.

With AFP reporting.

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