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Russia’s intelligence services are to develop extra security measures for its embassies following the killing of its ambassador to Turkey.

Andrei Karlov was shot dead as he gave a speech on Monday in Ankara.

The gunman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, an Ankara policeman, was apparently protesting at Russia’s involvement in Syria’s Aleppo. He was later shot dead.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was aimed at hurting ties with Russia. It was not clear whether the gunman, a riot police member, had links to any group.

Mr Karlov was attending an embassy-sponsored photo exhibition called “Russia as seen by Turks” on Monday evening in Ankara. He was several minutes into a speech when the gunman – who had been standing behind him as he spoke – fired about eight shots, according to eye witnesses.

The ambassador fell to the ground instantly, while the smartly dressed gunman, wearing a suit and tie, waved a pistol and shouted in Arabic and Turkish. He yelled “don’t forget about Aleppo, don’t forget about Syria” and used the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).

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German police are investigating a “probable terrorist attack” after a man ploughed a lorry into a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48.

The driver, reportedly a Pakistani asylum seeker who entered Germany last year, is being questioned.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it would be “particularly sickening” if he were proven to be a refugee. He was reportedly known to police for minor crimes, but not terror links.

German media say police have searched a refugee shelter at a defunct Berlin airport where the suspect was believed to be staying.

“We have to assume this was a terrorist attack”, Mrs Merkel said in a short statement on Tuesday. Those behind the attack would be punished “as harshly as the law allows”, she added.

The market is at Breitscheidplatz, close to the Kurfuerstendamm, the main shopping street in Berlin’s west. The attack happened in the shadow of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was damaged in a World War Two bombing raid and preserved as a symbol of peace. The truck, which was loaded with steel beams, veered into the market at 20:14 local time (19:14 GMT), one of its busiest times. It crashed through wooden huts and stands packed with tourists and locals.

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Evacuations of areas under siege in northern Syria are picking up pace, with people in some rebel-held zones now being allowed to leave.

Evacuation of the last rebel enclaves in eastern Aleppo surrounded by Syrian forces restarted late on Sunday. Among those to have left is seven-year-old Bana Alabed, who had tweeted about conditions in the city.

A linked evacuation of government-held parts of Idlib province being besieged by rebels started early on Monday.

While civilians are being moved to safety in Syria, the UN Security Council is to discuss sending monitors to oversee the mass evacuations. There are hopes that countries divided on Syria’s fate will come to a rare agreement on the crisis.

Eastern Aleppo had been held by the rebels since 2012, but Syrian forces squeezed them into ever-smaller corners of the city, along with thousands of civilians, before evacuations started last week. Initial efforts collapsed on Friday, leaving civilians stranded without access to food and shelter and with almost no medical facilities. However, the operation to move civilians to other rebel-held territory restarted late on Sunday.

Turkey’s foreign minister said 4,500 civilians had left eastern Aleppo since midnight on Monday, bringing the number of evacuees to 12,000. The departure of Bana Alabed, whose home in eastern Aleppo was bombed and whose appeals for peace were heard worldwide, was confirmed by a Syrian-American aid organisation early on Monday. Among the people waiting to leave eastern Aleppo are sick and wounded children, said the children’s charity Unicef. Some young children have been forced to leave without their parents, the charity said.

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French and Spanish police have arrested five people following the discovery of a suspected weapons cache of the militant Basque separatist group Eta.

The guns and explosives were found in the town of Louhossoa, near Bayonne in south-west France, officials said. However, French human rights lawyer Michel Tubiana said those arrested were activists who wanted to destroy Eta weapons and hand them to authorities.

Eta declared a ceasefire in 2011 but has refused to give up its weapons.

Mr Tubiana, honorary president of the Human Rights League of France, said he had initially intended to be with the activist group, but did not attend the meeting. “We didn’t hide, our plans were clear from the start,” he told French media. “There is a total blockage in the Eta disarmament process, a blockage which comes from the French and Spanish governments’ side. Several civil society members wanted to re-launch the process, by carrying out a first destruction of weapons.” He added: “This police operation is clearly political.”

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A 12-year-old German-Iraqi boy tried to blow up a Christmas market in the town of Ludwigshafen, prosecutors say.

He left a rucksack with explosives which failed to detonate in November, and put another explosive device by the town hall a few days later, they say. But a member of the public alerted the police, and no-one was injured.

The 12 year old – who is now in custody – is thought have been recently radicalised and to have links with the so-called Islamic State group.

Focus magazine cited security and judicial sources as saying the boy was “strongly radicalised” and apparently instructed by an unknown IS member.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on a possible IS link, but confirmed officials were investigating the case.

Public Prosecutor Hubert Stroeber said the boy left a backpack containing a home-made nail bomb at the Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on 26 November, but the device did not go off because the detonator apparently failed.

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