Chronicle Editor
BERLIN. — German authorities say they are actively searching for a suspect after finding an identity document under the driver’s seat of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people on Monday evening. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere confirmed yesterday that authorities had identified a new suspect but did not know for sure whether he was the man behind the attack.
“There is a new suspect we are searching for — he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant,” the minister told reporters.
The found document was issued to Anis A., born in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine in 1992, media reports said.
A government spokesman said he may have been refused asylum.
A spokesperson for Tunisia’s foreign ministry said it was trying to verify the individual’s information.
The pre-Christmas carnage at a symbolic Berlin site — under the ruined spire of a church bombed during World War II — has shocked Germans and prompted security reviews across Europe, already on high alert after attacks this year in Belgium and France.
The unconfirmed reports that an asylum seeker may have been behind the attack has revived a bitter debate about security and immigration, with Chancellor Angela Merkel facing calls to clamp down after allowing more than a million newcomers into Germany in the past two years.
Merkel, who will run for a fourth term next year, has said it would be particularly repulsive if a refugee seeking protection in Germany was the perpetrator.
Police initially arrested a Pakistani asylum-seeker near the scene, but released him without charge on Tuesday.
Authorities have warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. It is not clear if the perpetrator was acting alone or with others.
The 25-tonne truck, belonging to a Polish freight company, smashed into wooden huts selling Christmas gifts and serving mulled wine and sausages, killing 12 people and injuring about 45 others. —News Agencies/HR.
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