Anis Amri, the main suspect in the Berlin Christmas market lorry attack, has been killed in a shootout in a suburb of the northern Italian city of Milan, Italian interior minister said.

Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti told a press conference in Rome that Amri had been fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check around 3.00 am (0200 GMT).

Identity checks had established "without a shadow of doubt" that the dead man was Amri, the minister said.
The shootout took place in Milan's Sesto San Giovanni neighbourhood.

Minniti added that the suspect, a 24-year-old Tunisian, pulled out a gun from his backpack after being asked to show his identity papers. A police officer was injured in the shootout.

A Europe-wide search for Amri was launched and he was described by authorities as "violent and armed" [Reuters]


ISIL has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, in which the truck mowed through a crowd of people and bulldozed wooden huts selling Christmas gifts and snacks beside a famous church in west Berlin.

One of the 12 dead was the Polish driver from whom the truck had been hijacked. His body, stabbed and shot, was found in the cab.

Germany had launched a Europe-wide manhunt for Amri who was described as "violent and armed".

But it emerged that he was potentially dangerous and already under investigation.

The interior minister of Germany's most-populous North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, Ralf Jaeger, said counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about Amri, most recently in November, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing "a serious act of violence against the state".

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

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies