This combination of pictures created on December 23, 2016 shows two handout portraits released by German Federal Police Office (BKA) on December 22, 2016 showing a Tunisian man identified as Anis Amri, suspected of being involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack, that killed 12 people on December 19. AFP PHOTO
ROME—Anis Amri, the chief suspect in the deadly terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin this week, was killed by the police in a shootout outside Milan early Friday morning, Italian officials said.
Amri, during a routine traffic stop, was asked to show identification papers. He immediately opened fire and shot at the officer who had asked for his papers, and a second police officer shot Amri, officials said in Rome.
“The person who attacked our police officers was killed,” Interior Minister Marco Minniti said at a news conference. “There is absolutely no doubt that the person who was killed was Anis Amri, the suspect in the terrorist attack in Berlin.”
Armed, dangerous
Law enforcement authorities across Europe had been hunting since Wednesday for Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian who moved to Italy in 2011 and then relocated to Germany in 2015.
He was described as armed and dangerous, and a reward of 100,000 euros, or about $104,000, was offered for information leading to his capture.
“As soon as this person entered our country, he was the most wanted man in Europe, and we immediately identified him and neutralized him,” Minniti said, though he did not specify when the police learned that Amri had entered Italy. “This means that our security is working really well.”
Investigation still under way
He declined to discuss the details of the operation, noting that the investigation was still under way.
Panorama, an Italian newsmagazine, reported that Amri was killed in a routine traffic stop at 3 a.m. in the Piazza I Maggio in Sesto San Giovanni district in northern Milan.
Mr. Amri left Tunisia, according to his relatives, with dreams of making money and buying a car. After arriving in Italy, he was a violent inmate who spent time in six jails.
In Germany, he was one of about 550 people identified as a danger to the state and placed under special surveillance.
Yet he was able to ignore deportation orders and brushes with the law, roaming freely until he was believed to have seized a truck, killed its Polish driver, and rammed it into a crowded market Monday night at Breitscheidplatz, a main square in Berlin. —NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE