German police hunt Tunisian over Berlin truck attack

BERLIN — German police are searching for a Tunisian man in connection with the deadly truck attack on a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, media reported on Wednesday. The man is aged 21 or 23 and known by three different names, according to reports in the daily Allgemeine Zeitung and the Bild newspaper. Both said asylum office papers believed to belong to the man were found in the cab of the truck. The documents, which announced a stay of deportation, were found under the driver’s seat of the 40-tonne lorry that barreled through the Christmas market in the heart of the German capital. Police were reportedly searching for the suspect, who was born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Twelve people were killed in what German authorities have called a “terrorist attack” in Berlin late Monday, including the Polish driver of the truck. The scenes instantly revived nightmarish memories of the July 14 truck assault in the French Riviera city of Nice, where 86 people were killed by a Tunisian. Amaq news agency linked to Daesh (the so-called IS) said: “a soldier of the Islamic State” carried out the Berlin carnage “in response to appeals to target citizens of coalition countries.” Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker was released late Tuesday for lack of evidence, prompting fears of a killer on the loose and further rattling nerves in a shocked country. The Pakistani man was arrested late Monday after he was reportedly seen jumping out of the truck and fleeing the scene. But officials had expressed growing doubts over whether they had the right suspect in custody, and he denied the charges under repeated questioning. “We may have a dangerous criminal in the are a,” Berlin’s police chief Klaus Kandt said, adding that security would be boosted while urging “heightened vigilance.” — AFP