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This is the man thought to be at the centre of an international manhunt after a lorry ploughed through a Christmas market in Berlin leaving 12 dead and dozens more injured.

The Tunisian man – identified as Anis Amri – is reportedly dangerous and part of a large Islamist terror network.

The suspect is said to have received permission to stay in Germany in April and was being monitored by the authorities.

Security officials believe he has links to Islamist preacher Abu Walaa – who is alleged to have given mosque sermons urging people to travel to Syria to fight for Islamic State.

(Image: Internet Unknown)

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

The suspect has also previously committed grievous bodily harm and is thought to be injured after a struggle with the Polish driver of the lorry, according to reports.

Officials are reportedly preparing for "immediate actions" in North-Rhine Westphalia suggesting a new manhunt is imminent after Berlin police said they had received more than 500 tip-offs following the attacks.

He is thought to be 23 years old and from the city of Tataouine but he also uses the name Ahmed A and several other identities, according to Der Spiegel.

(Image: REUTERS)

Under German privacy laws his full name and picture have not been released.

Investigators in Berlin made the dramatic breakthrough after finding ID papers under one of the seats in the truck that smashed into the Christmas market.

After the massacre, police arrested a 23-year-old suspect. A witness claimed they had tracked the man, an asylum seeker recently arrived from Pakistan, to a wooded park near Berlin’s Victory Column.

But when quizzed by police yesterday, the suspect denied any involvement, his clothes were not blood-stained and forensics found no gunpowder residue on him, prosecutors admitted.

A security source told Die Welt ­newspaper: “We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage.”

(Image: AFP) (Image: AFP) (Image: AFP)

Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland, delivered a grave warning when he said: “We must say that we are in a state of war.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited the scene of the carnage, added: “There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack.”

(Image: REUTERS)

(Image: REUTERS)