Europe News

German authorities detain man for possible link to Berlin attack

DATE IMPORTED:December 19, 2016Police and emergency workers are at the site of an accident at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz square near the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm avenue in the west of Berlin, Germany, December 19, 2016.
Fabrizio Bensch | Reuters

German authorities detained a Tunisian man who may have been involved in last week's attack on a Berlin Christmas market in which 12 people died, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The suspected attacker, Anis Amri, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia, had the mobile phone number of the 40-year old Tunisian, whom they did not name, stored in his telephone, prosecutors said. Officials raided his home and business premises, they said.

"Further investigations indicated that he could have been involved in the attack," said prosecutors, adding that he was arrested.

"To what extent suspicions against the arrested person will be hardened up remains to be seen after further investigation," said the prosecutors, adding they would decide by the end of Thursday whether to issue an arrest warrant for him.

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