Germany issues warrant for Tunisian possibly connected to Berlin truck attack

Germany issued a warrant on Wednesday for Anis Amri, a Tunisian man suspected of connections to an attack on a crowded Christmas market in Germany’s capital Berlin earlier this week.

Police said Amri was “under urgent suspicion” and offered 100,000 euros for information that would lead to him. A wallet, left in the truck that killed 12 people after it rammed into the market on Monday, contained his identity documents, the Washington Post reported.

On Monday, the day of the attack, police said they arrested a suspect near the scene. But they released that person a day later, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him.

Amri arrived in Germany in July 2015 and had applied for asylum, but began the deportation process after he came under suspicion by German authorities of “preparing a serious act of violent subversion,” the Washington Post reported.

The truck that drove through a Christmas market in Berlin is seen with a shattered windshield. Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the incident a likely “act of terrorism.”

Witnesses said the truck did not appear to slow down as it drove through the crowded pedestrian area.

Police cars and ambulances gathered at the scene near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the western part of central Berlin. Television footage of the aftermath showed the truck with a smashed windshield.

The incident appeared similar to one that took place in Nice, France, in July, when a Tunisian man drove a truck through a crowded waterfront where people had gathered to watch fireworks. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack. It later claimed credit for the one in Berlin as well.

This story has been updated with a more recent death toll and further details.