Germany Seeks Tunisian Tied to Berlin Christmas Market Attack

Germany Seeks Tunisian Tied to Berlin Christmas Market Attack

BERLIN — Investigators undertook a Europe-wide manhunt on Wednesday for a young Tunisian ex-convict with multiple aliases who had been denied asylum in Germany and was considered a security risk, linking him to a deadly truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market.

The attack on Monday killed 12 people and wounded 48 — 12 of them seriously. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the assault, one of Germany’s deadliest acts of terrorism in decades. The aftermath has been complicated by a botched search for the driver, who has remained at large.

berlin--iGerman Interior Minister on ManhuntLaws and traditions in Germany strongly emphasize personal privacy, and the identities of the victims of the attack have barely begun to emerge.One of the victims was a 65-year-old woman from Neuss, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to news reports. Fabrizia Di Lorenzo, an Italian transportation specialist who has been living in Germany for three years, has been missing since Monday, and her father, Gaetano Di Lorenzo, said he feared the worst.“We are here with my wife, waiting for the DNA results,” he said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “We are waiting for confirmation, but I am not deluding myself.”The daughter’s cellphone and transit pass were found near the scene   immediately after the attack, her relatives and friends reported on Tuesday on social media.In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack “may have claimed the life of an Israeli citizen.” He was referring to Dalia Elkayam, who has been missing since Monday and whose husband, Rami Elkayam, was seriously injured in the attack. Another victim of the attack was a Polish truck driver, Lukasz Urban, 37, who had a wife and young child and who was found dead in the cab of the truck. He had been stabbed and shot.

The revelations added to the growing pressure confronting Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who decided last year to open the country’s border to roughly a million migrants and refugees. A European arrest warrant identified the Tunisian as Anis Amri, 23, and said he had a history of providing false names and nationalities and should be considered armed and dangerous. German news agencies reported that the man had ties to Abu Walaa, a 32-year-old Iraqi Salafist arrested in Germany last month and accused of recruiting would-be jihadists to fight for the Islamic State. A reward of 100,000 euros, or about $104,000, was offered for information leading to his arrest.

It was not clear if the Tunisian was the actual driver. But the furious effort by the authorities to find someone who only months earlier faced deportation was outrageous, said Stephan Mayer, the home affairs spokesman for the conservative parliamentary bloc that includes Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.