Police hold Tunisian over links to Berlin attack

Berlin Police detained a Tunisian national on suspicion of having been in contact with the alleged perpetrator of the truck attack on a Christmas market in which 12 people died, federal officials said.

Investigators tracked down the 40-year-old man after discovering his phone number on the Tunisian Anis Amri's cellphone, which police found in the truck involved in the market attack, Efe news agency reports.

"Subsequent investigations indicated that he could have been involved in the attack," the prosecutor said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Amri was shot dead by police outside a Milan metro station on Friday, four days after the attack.

Amri had opened fire and injured one of the two Italian officers involved in a routine check where they had asked him for his identity papers.

German security forces said they were continuing their investigation into Amri's past in the country after his arrival in July 2015, when he applied for asylum.

On December 5, a 12-year-old boy was arrested in Ludwigshafen, about 60 km north of Karlsruhe, after he was caught trying to plant a homemade explosive at a Christmas market.

--IANS

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