German weekly Der Spiegel says the Tunisian man who carried out a deadly truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 was part of a Europe-wide network of Islamic extremists.

Spiegel reported Friday that Anis Amri , who died in a shootout with Italian police days after the rampage, had contacts to Islamic State supporters including extremists tied to the 2015 attacks in Paris.

It cited documents from the German Federal Prosecutors Office and federal police drawing on recordings made of prison conversations involving Frenchman Clement Baur, who was arrested in 2017 for planning an attack during the country's presidential election.

According to the report, Baur said Amri was part of a plan to stage simultaneous attacks in Europe and that he was fascinated by the 2016 Nice truck attack.