Updated December 22, 2016 21:08:36
The brother of a Tunisian man suspected of driving a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin has urged him to surrender as authorities across Europe scrambled to track the suspect down.
Nearly three days after the deadly attack, which killed 12 people and injured 48 others, large bollards to stop trucks were being put in place at the scene.
German authorities have issued a wanted notice for Anis Amri and offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($144,634) for information leading to the 24-year-old's arrest, warning that he could be "violent and armed".
Family members of Mr Amri, speaking from his hometown of Oueslatia in central Tunisia, were shaken to learn that he was a suspect.
One of Mr Amri's brothers urged him to turn himself in.
"I ask him to turn himself in to the police. If it is proved that he is involved, we dissociate ourselves from it," brother Abdelkader Amri told The Associated Press.
He said Mr Amri, who turned 24 on Thursday, may have been radicalised in prison in Italy, where he went after leaving Tunisia in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings.
German media reported several locations were searched overnight, including a refugee home in Emmerich on the Dutch border.
There was no immediate comment from federal prosecutors, who are leading the investigation.
An Israeli woman, Dalia Elyakim, has been identified as one of the 12 killed when a truck ploughed into the market in central Berlin on Monday evening (local time), Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.
The market in the centre of the capital was due to reopen today.
Photo: Large bollards to stop trucks are put in at scene of Berlin attack. (ABC News: James Glenday) German officials had deemed Mr Amri, who arrived in the country last year, a potential threat long before the attack and even kept him under covert surveillance for six months this year before halting the operation.
They had been trying to deport him after his asylum application was rejected in July but were unable to do so because he lacked valid identity papers and Tunisia initially denied that he was a citizen.
Documents belonging to Mr Amri, who according to authorities has used at least six different names and three different nationalities, were found in the cab of the truck.
Mr Amri left Tunisia years ago for Europe but had been in regular contact with his brothers via Facebook and phone.
AP/ABC
First posted December 22, 2016 20:53:12
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