WARSAW (REUTERS) - Polish President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of mourners on Friday (Dec 30) attended the funeral of Lukasz Urban, the Polish truck driver who was killed and his vehicle used to crash into a Berlin Christmas market last week. Lukasz Urban, 37, has been described as the first victim of the attack on December 19 that killed a total of 12 people and injured at least 50. He had been waiting to deliver a shipment of steel in Berlin when his truck was hijacked by the attacker, believed to be Tunisian man Anis Amri, who was later killed in a shoot-out with Italian police. Mr Urban was shot by the attacker, who hijacked his lorry to kill 11 others and injure 48 at a Christmas market. Polish President Andrzej Duda laid a wreath and briefly kneeled in front of Urban's white coffin, after attending mass in the village in northwestern Poland, 15 kilometers from the German border. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said earlier Urban's son and wife would receive a special pension, while an Internet crowdfunding campaign started by a British truck driver has raised more than £177,000 (S$316,000) for the family. Image copyright AFP Image caption President Duda (L) presented condolences to the wife (C), son (2nd R) and mother (R) of Mr Urban

Image copyright AP Image caption A bishop attended the funeral Mass

"Poles have fallen victim to terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalists but the tragedy that happened in Berlin is unique when it comes to the ruthlessness and cruelty of the perpetrator,'' she added. As Mass was ending, AP adds, President Duda bowed his head before the white coffin before approaching Mr Urban's wife and teenage son, then whispering to them, shaking their hands and kissing the wife's hand. Mourners packed a small church in Banie, the driver's home village, for mass, while several trucks parked nearby honked their horns to honour the driver, private TV channel TVN24 showed.
The funeral of Łukasz Urban, the driver killed in the course of last week's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, takes place in his village of Banie near the German border. President of Poland Andrzej Duda and a German diplomat attend.