The Berlin market attack suspect, Anis Amri, has been shot dead by police in Milan, Italy’s interior minister says.
The man, who opened fire on police who asked him for ID during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni area in the early hours of Friday, was “without a shadow of a doubt” Anis Amri, Marco Minniti said.
One police officer was injured in the shootout but his life is not in danger.
Monday’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market left 12 dead and 49 injured.
When police stopped the suspect, who was on foot, at 03:00 (02:00 GMT), he “immediately drew out a gun”, Mr Minniti said.
Officer Cristian Movio was injured in the shoulder.
His junior colleague, Luca Scata, who has been in the police for just nine months, was the one who fired the shot which killed Amri.
The fingerprints of the dead man match Amri’s, reports in the Italian media say.
German officials have confirmed Amri’s fingerprints were found inside the truck that was used in Monday evening’s attack.
The attack took place at a Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the west of the German capital.
Investigators are trying to establish whether the gun used in the shooting in Milan is the same weapon used to kill the Polish driver of the truck, who was found dead with stab and gun wounds in the cab.
According to the Italian news agency Ansa, Anis Amri had travelled by train from France to Turin, and then taken another train to Milan.
From the central station he travelled on to Sesto San Giovanni, a working-class area. He was on foot when he was asked to show his documents, Ansa reports.
Amri, a Tunisian national aged 24, had served a prison sentence in Italy after being convicted of vandalism, threats and theft in 2011.
He was known to Italian authorities for his violent behaviour while imprisoned.
After his release he was asked to leave the country. He arrived in Germany where he applied for asylum in April of this year.
He was named as a suspect in the Berlin attack by German federal prosecutors, and a reward of up to €100,000 (£84,000; $104,000) was offered for information leading to his arrest.
A spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry said it was “relieved that this person no longer poses a danger”, should it prove true that Amri had been killed.
Tobias Plate would not comment on reports in the German media that Amri had been filmed at a mosque in Berlin in the hours after the attack.
Separately, police arrested two people in the German city of Oberhausen on suspicion of planning an attack on a shopping centre.
Mr Minitti praised the two police officers who had apprehended Amri, and said the operation showed how Italy’s security system was working well.
“As soon as this person entered our country, a fugitive wanted across Europe, we immediately identified him and neutralised him,” the minister said.
Source: BBC
