Spaniard injured in Berlin: “The truck ran into me and right over my legs”

Spanish authorities have confirmed that Iñaki Ellakuria, a 21-year-old from the Basque city of Bilbao, is the only Spaniard harmed in Monday evening’s presumed terrorist attack in Berlin, which left 12 dead and 48 injured.

Using the social networks, Ellakuria recounted how the truck, which plowed into a Berlin open-air Christmas market, broke his legs in several places and fractured his hip.

I’m feeling fine now, but that’s mainly due to the amount of drugs they have shot me full of

Iñaki Ellakuria

He underwent surgery on Tuesday morning and is said to be recovering well. “Everything went fine,” his father, Juan José Ellakuria, told Efe before leaving for the German capital with his wife to visit his son.

Ellakuria, who is studying for an economics degree at the Basque Country University,  was in Berlin for a year as part of an Erasmus student exchange program.

He said he was visiting the Christmas market with two female friends, who were not hurt, when he heard the vehicle crash into a stall behind him.

When he turned to look, it hit him full on. “It was going too fast for it to have skidded off the road,” he said on Twitter.

“It was very cold, and I was shivering, the pain was unbearable, the worst I have ever endured, and it kept getting worse,” he tweeted.

Ellakuria also thanked passers by who helped the injured with “cushions, water, food, blankets, hats and scarves” until the emergency services arrived on the scene.

“I’m feeling fine now, but that’s mainly due to the amount of drugs they have shot me full of,” tweeted Ellakuria after his operation.

German authorities are now saying that the man they arrested shortly after the attack, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker who was under surveillance, has denied any responsibility for the attack and that their search continues.

English version by Nick Lyne.