Summary
- German police have offered a reward of 100,000 euros, for information leading to the arrest of the new suspect of the attack, who they named as Tunisian national Anis Amri, 24. They released photos of Amri, who is described as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.
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Police described him as armed and dangerous and urged members of the public to notify police if they see him.
- A European arrest warrant issued from Germany says Amri has used six different aliases and three different nationalities - Tunisian, Egyptian and Lebanese.
- He has been living in Berlin since February and was regarded by the security services as a “danger” to the public. His application for asylum was turned down in June because he didn’t posses the correct papers.
- Amri is reported to have links with a hate preacher named Ahmad Abdelazziz A, also known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November. The preacher is alleged to have given sermons encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight.
- Berlin’s state health ministry says 12 people are still being treated in hospital for very serious injuries sustained in the attack, among them an unspecified number in a critical condition. It said that a number of people with lighter injuries are being discharged.
The state prosecutor has issued a wanted poster of Amri, with - unlike earlier pictures - images that have not been blurred.
Germany's state prosecutor issues official wanted poster for Anis Amri, with new (not blurred-out) pictures https://t.co/9pABs4cz6P
— Philip Oltermann (@philipoltermann) December 21, 2016
And this is the European arrest warrant.
German authorities offer €100,000 reward
German authorities have offered a reward of up to €100,000 (£84,000) for information leading to the arrest of the Tunisian man suspected of involvement in the attack.
Federal prosecutors describe 24-year-old Anis Amri as of average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes.
In a public notice issued on Wednesday, prosecutors say he could be “dangerous and armed” and urge members of the public to notify police if they see him.
Updated
Here are pictures of the scene of the attack now, covered with tributes:
People are continuing to lay tributes - including a miniature Christmas tree - at #Breitscheidsplatz pic.twitter.com/GkAoTHM0la
— Claire Hayhurst (@clairehayhurst) December 21, 2016
The poster on the right below reads: “Let us stay peaceful together. No violence, no hate, no revenge.”
#Breitscheidsplatz pic.twitter.com/aVq5EjM3f6
— Gilly ツ (@GillyBerlin) December 21, 2016
Updated
Berlin’s state health ministry says 12 people are still being treated in hospital for very serious injuries sustained in the attack, among them an unspecified number in a critical condition, AP reports.
It said that a number of people with lighter injuries are being discharged.
Updated
AP says it has seen a European arrest warrant from Germany, which names the suspect as Anis Amri, as previously reported.
It says Amri has Tunisian citizenship and was born in the town of Ghaza. But it lists multiple aliases, many of them variants on his name, and Egyptian and Lebanese citizenship as well.
German authorities say they rejected the man’s asylum request in July.
Updated
Suspect uses six aliases
AP has a breaking news alert, which says the suspect has used six different aliases and three different nationalities and is considered “armed and dangerous”.
Updated
Germany’s interior ministry has deleted a tweet in which it appeared to flout the advice of its minister, Thomas de Maizière, by speculating about the nationality of the suspect.
Elena Cresci has this translation of the announcement about the deleted tweet:
The use of a hashtag #Tunesier has led to confusion. For that we apologise. We did not want to contribute to any speculation. Its use was not meant as a confirmation of the nationality of the current suspect. Therefore, we have deleted the tweet.
Earlier Maizière appealed to the media not to speculate about the suspect.
In eigener Sache. pic.twitter.com/9pfPOCruee
— BMI (@BMI_Bund) December 21, 2016
Updated
Summary
Here’s what we know so far:
- Police are hunting for a Tunisian man whose documents were found in the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market. The new suspect has been named in the German media as Anis Amri.
- The suspect has been living in Berlin since February and was regarded by the security services as a “danger” to the public. His application for asylum was turned down in June because he didn’t posses the correct papers. Tunisia initially denied that he was a Tunisian citizen, but documents confirming that he was arrived today.
- Amri is reported to have links with a hate preacher named Ahmad Abdelazziz A., also known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November. The preacher is alleged to have given sermons encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight.
- Unconfirmed reports claim the Polish man whose body was found in the truck tried to fight off the attacker. It is suggested that his struggle may have prevented more people from being killed in the attack.
- Monday night’s attack at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, killed 12 and injuring 48. Of those killed, six were German, one was Polish (the original truck driver, Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old who was found dead in the passenger seat of the vehicle). The identities of the other victims are not yet known.
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An Italian woman is feared to be among the 12 victims. Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, 31, has not been heard from since the attack and it is understood her phone and metro pass were found at the scene.
- Isis claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency Amaq, calling the assailant responsible a “soldier” who “carried out the attack in response to calls to target citizens of the international coalition”. However, Isis provided no evidence to support its claim.
- Police released Naved B, a Pakistani asylum seeker who they had arrested on Monday night, after finding no evidence that he was the driver of the truck. A bystander had tried to follow the driver of the truck for more than a mile after they witnessed him jump out before it was driven into the Christmas market, but it seems they misidentified the suspect.
- “We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil,” said German chancellor Angela Merkel, before visiting Breitscheidplatz. The attacks - and arrest of an asylum seeker - sparked political debate in Germany over immigration and the policies of Merkel, who is facing re-election next year.
Updated
Jäger confirmed that the suspect’s application for asylum was refused.
According to a live translation provided by Sky News he said:
It is not yet established that the suspect was part of the attack. We in North Rhine-Westphalia have been supporting the state prosecutor in his aim of finding and detaining suspects. We must not endanger the action to detain the suspect, so we can’t give you any information.
I can give the following information about the suspect: Since February 2016 he has been living in Berlin. He was briefly in North Rhine-Westphalia before that. The security services have exchanged information regarding him in November. The federal police issued a warning that he was posing a danger.
In June 2016 his asylum application was rejected. He could not be deported because he did not have any valid identity papers. Tunisia initially denied that he was a citizen on Tunisia. His identity papers arrived today - I don’t want to comment further on this fact.
Anis Amri's application for asylum was rejected in June this year but he could not be deported because he didn't possess correct papers
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) December 21, 2016
NRW interior min says suspect couldn't be deported because Tunisia initially denied he was Tunisian citizen. Required docs arrived... today
— Philip Oltermann (@philipoltermann) December 21, 2016
Updated
Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where police have been hunting the main suspect, has been giving a press conference.
He is reported to have said that the main suspect was due to have been deported.
NRW-Innenminister Jäger: Tatverdächtiger sollte abgeschoben werden. Scheiterte an fehlenden Papieren. #Breitscheidplatz
— MDR Aktuell (@MDRaktuell) December 21, 2016
Market attack suspect arrived in Germany in July 2015, according to interior minister of NRW where he lived
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) December 21, 2016
He was seen as a threat by several security agencies - Jäger
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) December 21, 2016
An Italian woman is feared to be among the 12 victims of the Berlin lorry attack.
Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, 31, has not been heard from since the attack and it is understood her phone and metro pass were found at the scene.
She is believed to have been living in Berlin and her family have flown there to give samples of their DNA. Her father told the Italian daily Repubblica that the family were waiting for news, but had “no illusions” about her fate.
It points out that in some of her last Twitter posting Di Lorenzo spoke against racial discrimination and urged her followers not to confuse terrorism with immigration.
Bauman: che errore sovrapporreil terrorismo all’immigrazione https://t.co/w9XWAtWNIX
— Fräulein F (@Bizia) March 25, 2016
De Maizière confirmed that a “pan-European” search is underway for the suspect of Monday’s attack.
#deMaizière: "Wir ermitteln mit Hochdruck in alle Richtungen, nach einem Tatverdächtigen wird europaweit gefahndet." #Tunesier #BerlinAttack
— BMI (@BMI_Bund) December 21, 2016
Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, has urged the media not to speculate about the hunt for the suspect.
In a brief comments confirming that a new suspect was being sought, he told reporters: “It is important that we find this suspect, and that’s why it is important to carry out an undercover search. We are gathering the data and the all the evidence.
“So I ask for your understanding not to issue any speculation about this person. I cannot confirm nor deny information. We will let you know further information when we have further facts, and not before. What is important is the result and not the speed of speculation.”
Updated
The Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency has published an English version of its claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack.
Here's the English version of IS's claim of responsibility for the truck attack at the Christmas market in #Berlin via Amaq pic.twitter.com/ci15q0Orcn
— Michael S. Smith II (@MichaelSSmithII) December 21, 2016
The German government has agreed new legislation to strengthen video surveillance.
The move has been planned for months but was approved by the cabinet as police have been scrambling for CCTV footage of Monday’s attack.
The proposed law would make data protection commissioners give greater weight than before to “the protection of life, health and freedom” when deciding whether to permit video surveillance in public places.
Germany has restrictive data protection rules and a suspicion of surveillance.
Officials in North Rhine-Westphalia, where police have been hunting the main suspect, are due to give a press conference at 3.30pm local time (2.30pm GMT).
The state’s interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, is due make a statement.
NRW-Innenminister Jäger will sich gegen 15.30 Uhr zum neuen Verdächtigen äußern. #Breitscheidplatz
— MDR Aktuell (@MDRaktuell) December 21, 2016
More details are also emerging about Abu Walaa, the “faceless preacher”, who is linked to the main suspect in the Christmas Market attack.
He was arrested in November with four others over suspicions that he recruited young Muslims to travel to Syria to fight for Isis, according to a report in the Local citing a report in the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Abu Walaa is alleged to have given sermons in the mosque encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight.
SZ reports that [the] arrests were made possible by a statement given by a 22-year-old who returned to Germany in September after fighting for Isis in Syria.
In an interview with SZ while still in Turkey, the young man had described Abu Walaa as “Isis’ number one in Germany.”
Several German outlets reporting suspect had ties to Salafist network around "faceless preacher" Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, aka "Abu Walaa"
— Philip Oltermann (@philipoltermann) December 21, 2016
Updated
Kate Connolly has more on what we know about the new suspect Anis A.
He has links to Salafist groups in western Germany. He is known to police as a dangerous person and is embedded in the Islamist network.
Police say they’re carrying out extensive checks in the state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) where he was registered.
He is 23, was born in Tataouine in 1992 and has used at least 4 aliases in the past.
In the summer he came to police attention over a GBH offence but he went underground before they were able to arrest him.Police believe he is injured, possibly badly, and are scouring German hospitals to try and find him.
DNA traces from the driver found in the car have been secured. Anis A has addresses both in Berlin and NRW.
A police press conference that had been due to take place at 1pm (12 GMT) has been delayed, writes Philip Oltermann.
In the meantime, more detail has emerged about the suspect Anis A from two seemingly well-sourced pieces in Sueddeutsche and from state broadcaster Tagesschau.
He is said to have arrived in Italy in 2012, and came to Germany in July 2015, where he applied for asylum.
Since April 2016 his status has been that of Duldung or “temporary suspension of deportation”, which means his application was rejected but he hasn’t been forcefully evicted.
He was reportedly arrested by police in Friedrichshafen in August this year, and found to be carrying a fake Italian ID document. He had been registered at an asylum shelter in Emmerich on the Rhine, on the Dutch-German border.
He had contacts with the circle around the hate preacher Ahmad Abdelazziz A., also known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November.
Sueddeutsche reports that Anis A’s telecommunications had been watched by German intelligence agencies but that he disappeared off the radar in December. He had reportedly approached a man who worked as a police source in North-Rhine Westphalia to enquire about obtaining weapons.
Alexander Ritzmann, director the European Foundation for Democracy and chairman of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network, said that if the suspect left identity documents in the truck that could point to a terrorist attack.
Speaking to BBC News, he said: “It would fit into the pattern of terrorist organisations to leave behind documents. They are not supposed to hide the identities of the attackers or hide the organisation that commits the attack.”
He added: “Terrorism is an extreme form of political communication so they supposed to explain what they did, how they did it and why they did it.”
He also noted that Christmas markets have been targeted by extremists for “years”.
German media have published pictures of the new suspect with his eyes covered or pixelated.
Image of Berlin market attack suspect, Anis A. or Ahmed A. according to @Bild. 24 year old Tunisian registered in NRW pic.twitter.com/BJO0GjHWBH
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) December 21, 2016
Nach dem Anschlag in Berlin fahndet die Polizei bundesweit nach dem verdächtigten Tunesier… https://t.co/BlpDcEn6Sw pic.twitter.com/vfg6Ekzz4D
— FOCUS Online (@focusonline) December 21, 2016
Opening summary
Welcome to Wednesday’s live coverage of the manhunt for the suspect or suspects in the Christmas market attack in Berlin. Here is what we know:
- Police are hunting for a Tunisian man whose documents were found in the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, German media is reporting. The new suspect has been named in the German media as Anis A.
- Police are said to be searching for the suspect in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Police were due to give a press conference at 1pm local time (12 GMT).
- Unconfirmed reports claim the Polish man whose body was found in the truck tried to fight off the attacker. It is suggested that his struggle may have prevented more people from being killed in the attack.
- Monday night’s attack at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, killed 12 and injuring 48. Of those killed, six were German, one was Polish (the original truck driver, Lukasz Urban, a 37-year-old who was found dead in the passenger seat of the vehicle). The identities of the other victims are not yet known.
- Isis claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency Amaq, calling the assailant responsible a “soldier” who “carried out the attack in response to calls to target citizens of the international coalition”. However, Isis provided no evidence to support its claim.
- Police released Naved B, a Pakistani asylum seeker who they had arrested on Monday night, after finding no evidence that he was the driver of the truck. A bystander had tried to follow the driver of the truck for more than a mile after they witnessed him jump out before it was driven into the Christmas market, but it seems they misidentified the suspect.
- “We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil,” said German chancellor Angela Merkel, before visiting Breitscheidplatz. The attacks - and arrest of an asylum seeker - sparked political debate in Germany over immigration and the policies of Merkel, who is facing re-election next year.
Updated
