Berlin attack: Police hunt Tunisian suspect after finding ID papers in truck

A manhunt is under way across Europe after prosecutors identified a suspect in Monday’s deadly lorry attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

German prosecutors named the man they are searching for as Anis Amri, 23, from Tunisia, warning he could be armed and dangerous.

His residence permit was found in the cab of the lorry.

The suspect had reportedly been under German surveillance earlier this year on suspicion of seeking to buy guns.

The German authorities are offering a reward of up to €100,000 (£84,000; $104,000) for information leading to his arrest.

Reports suggest he may have been injured in a struggle with the lorry driver, found murdered in the cab. The attack claimed 12 lives in all.

Police are searching a migrant shelter in the Emmerich area of North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, where the suspect’s permit was issued.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has met her security cabinet to discuss the investigation into the attack.

In another development, the German cabinet approved plans agreed last month to allow more video surveillance of public places.

‘Identified as a threat’

The warrant lists six different aliases used by Anis Amri, who at times tried to pass himself off as an Egyptian or Lebanese.

He is reported to have travelled to Italy in 2012 and then on to Germany in 2015 where he applied for asylum and was granted temporary leave to stay in April of this year.

Ralf Jaeger, the minister of interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, said on Wednesday that the claim for asylum had been rejected in June but the papers necessary for deportation had not been ready.

“Security agencies exchanged their findings and information about this person with the Joint Counter-Terrorism Centre in November 2016,” the minister said.

Germany’s Spiegel news magazine reports that the suspect was “classified as a so-called danger, a police category of people who are suspected of being capable of an attack, and who were therefore regularly checked”.

Tunisia, Mr Jaeger said, had denied Anis Amri was its citizen, so the authorities had had to wait for temporary passport documentation from Tunisia.

“The papers arrived today from Tunisia,” Mr Jaeger added.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that the suspect moved within the circle of an Islamist preacher, Ahmad Abdelazziz A, known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November.

Some 49 people were also injured when the lorry was driven into crowds at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market. So-called Islamic State said one of its militants carried out the attack but offered no evidence.

Polish citizen Lukasz Urban was found dead on the passenger seat with gunshot and stab wounds.

Investigators believe the lorry was hijacked on Monday afternoon as it stood in an industrial zone in north-western Berlin, Germany’s Bild tabloid reports.

Mr Urban had stopped there after the delivery of Italian steel beams he was carrying was postponed until Tuesday.

GPS data from the vehicle reportedly shows it made small movements “as if someone was learning how to drive it” before leaving for the city at 19:40 (18:40 GMT), heading for the Christmas market near the Kurfuerstendamm, Berlin’s main shopping street.

Lorry attack dead, missing and injured

Details of the casualties have begun to emerge:

• The only confirmed death is that of Polish lorry driver Lukasz Urban, who appears to have fought the attacker before dying of stab and gunshot wounds

• Italian expatriate Fabrizia di Lorenzo, 31, from Sulmona near L’Aquila, is feared dead. It is understood her phone and metro pass were found at the scene

• A woman from Neuss, near the west German city of Duesseldorf, is believed to be among the dead while her son, aged 40, is among the injured

• The German authorities have asked the family of Israeli woman Dalia Elyakim, missing since the attack, for DNA samples to help identify her; her husband Rami was seriously injured

• A Spanish student, 21-year-old Inaki Ellakuria, survived the attack with leg injuries. He has been tweeting (in Spanish) about his experiences

There appears to be evidence that, despite being stabbed, Mr Urban wrestled his hijacker for the steering wheel.

The post-mortem examination suggests that Mr Urban survived up until the attack and was shot dead when the truck came to a halt. No gun has been recovered.

Police say they are acting on hundreds of tips from the public and are examining DNA traces from the cab of the truck.

German President Joachim Gauck visited some of the injured on Wednesday.

Speaking outside the Charite Hospital in Berlin, he said: “They should feel that they are not alone and that apart from the doctors here, people across the country are hoping and waiting for them to recover.”

Officials released the only detained suspect on Tuesday, saying there was no evidence to link him to the attack.

The IS group claimed the attack through its self-styled news agency, saying it was “in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries”.

Prosecutor Peter Frank told reporters that the style of attack and the choice of target suggested Islamic extremism. BBC News