Critical evidence emerges in hunt for Berlin terror suspect

LONDON - Key evidence has emerged in the hunt for Anis Amri - the Tunisian man suspected of plotting the attack on a Berlin Christmas market on Monday.

Reuters reported on Thursday that investigators found Amri's fingerprints on the door of the truck that ploughed through the crowds, killing 12 and injuring 48. Reuters cited local media and said police declined to comment.

In other developments on Thursday:

• A shopping centre in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin was closed in the afternoon due to a police operation. According to Reuters, German newspaper Tagesspiegel tweeted that the reason for the closure was unclear. Sky News added that the underground station in the area was also shut down due to a "suspicious object."
• The market at the centre of the atrocity reopened. Giant concrete barriers have been placed around the market to prevent a repeat attack.
• Police raided homes in the city of Dortmund in connection with the attack, but German authorities have denied earlier reports that arrests were made, according to the BBC.

German police have issued a Europe-wide wanted notice for 24-year-old Amri, offering a €100,000 (£84,000, $104,000) reward for information leading to his arrest. They have warned, however, he "could be violent and armed."

The search turned to the Tunisian, who is believed to have extremist links, after an identification document was found under the driver's seat in the 40-tonne truck behind Monday night's carnage.

German officials said they had already been investigating Amri, suspecting he was planning an attack, AFP reported.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri as recently as November. A probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state."

Berlin prosecutors said separately that Amri had been suspected of planning a burglary to raise cash to buy automatic weapons, "possibly to carry out an attack," AFP added.

But after keeping tabs on him from March until September this year they failed to find evidence of the plot, learning only that Amri was a small-time drug dealer, and the surveillance was stopped.

Amri's brother: 'I'm in shock'

Amri left Tunisia after the 2011 revolution and lived in Italy. Italian media said he served time in prison there for setting fire to a school. He arrived in Germany in July 2015 but his application for asylum was rejected this June. His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which long denied he was a citizen.

AFP tracked down Amri's brother Abdelkader Amri. He said: "I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime." The brother added that "he deserves every condemnation" if he is guilty. "We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists."

ISIS on Tuesday afternoon claimed credit for Monday's destruction, supporting what German and US officials had presumed to be an act of terrorism. The group's Amaq news agency called the truck driver an ISIS soldier who "executed the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition countries."

The truck ran into the market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the Charlottenburg neighbourhood of Berlin at about 8 p.m. local time on Monday. It ploughed through stalls and tables and travelled 50 to 80 metres (164 to 262 feet), according to the Berliner Morgenpost.

A Polish man, named as Lukasz Urban, was found dead in the passenger side of the truck. De Maizière, the German interior minister, confirmed that the man was shot with a shotgun but said the weapon had not been recovered. The man was identified by a cousin who owned the truck company where the man had been a driver.

Reuturs published a number of photos of the Christmas market reopening. The shots capture officials placing concrete barriers around the location to prevent a similar attack.