
Wire tap: Anis Amri, 24, pictured in a new video, offered himself up as a suicide bomber and was also learning how to make bombs, according to security sources

The Tunisian asylum seeker on the run from police across Europe left his fingerprints on the steering wheel of the lorry used to murder 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, it was revealed today.

Anis Amri, 24, also left fingerprints on the door and his wallet under the driver's seat in the hijacked truck before it sent people flying like pins in Breitscheidplatz on Monday night.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there is a 'high probability' that the chief suspect is 'really the perpetrator'.

He said: 'In the cab fingerprints were found and there is additional evidence that support this', adding: 'It is all the more important that the search is successful as soon as possible.'

Angela Merkel stood next to him as he made the announcement and said she was confident Amri would be arrested 'soon' - despite police and security services bungling the initial investigation.

The Chancellor added she was 'proud of the calm response' to the Berlin attack.

Police raided a mosque in Berlin tonight as they searched for Europe's most wanted man.

Elite commando units hunting for Anis Amri, 24, blew up the front door, threw in stun grenades and witnesses reported hearing gunfire.

The target was the 'Fussilet 33' association's building in Perleberger Straße in the south-east of the capital. Neighbouring flats are also being searched, according to German media.

It was raided in 2015 over allegations they were raising money for extremists in Syria. An imam was put under investigation.

This morning they raided properties across Germany, including a refugee centre, but have not found Europe's most wanted man.

Today it was revealed Amri, who has a 100,000 euro bounty on his head, offered himself up as an ISIS suicide bomber and took a sinister video of himself walking the streets of the German capital.

The 24-year-old, who has six aliases, three fake passports and repeatedly tried to change his appearance, was also learning how to make bombs and was barred from flying to America, US officials have revealed.

One of his Facebook accounts only contains a picture of a lion - a key motif used by jihadists to symbolise honour – and a single video of himself walking through the centre of Berlin in September. German media claim it could have been a reconnaissance video.

Wire taps revealed that two months ago Amri had told a hate preacher that he was willing to blow himself up - and had also inquired about buying automatic weapons from a police informant. But German officers still did not believe they had enough evidence to arrest him, according to Spiegel.

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Under pressure: German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has confirmed that Anis Amri was inside the truck hijacked from Polish driver Lukasz Urban. Angela Merkel (also left) believes there will be an arrest soon despite police and security services bungling the hunt for the main suspect

Path to Germany: Amri fled Tunisia to avoid jail but was imprisoned in Italy for rioting in an immigration centre. He still managed to get to Germany after his release. He has been repeatedly arrested and watched by vanished two weeks ago

A European arrest warrant from Germany, indicates that Anis Amri (pictured) has at times used six different aliases and three different nationalities. German police were tracking him for months amid fears he was involved in an earlier terrorist plot - but lost him before the Berlin Christmas market massacre

Fresh start: The market decimated by the careering lorry on Monday has re-opened today - three days after 12 people died

Visitors and police walk through the reopened Breitscheidplatz Christmas market only a short distance from where three days ago a truck wiped out 12 people

A concrete block is lifted by a crane to secure the Christmas market next to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche ahead of its scheduled reopening today - critics said they should have been there already

Security: Armed police patrol among people at the re-opened Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz as Germany remains on high alert

Dortmund: Police made four arrests linked of associates linked to the suspect, who lived in the city when he came to Germany

Berlin: A flat was also raided in the German capital by a commando squad - who blew up the front door, according to Bild, but the property was empty

Emmerich: A shelter for asylum seekers was searched in eastern Germany, pictured, where one man was questioned

An Israeli woman, Dalia Elyakim, and 31-year-old Fabrizia Di Lorenzo of Italy were among the 12 killed in the market attack, their countries said. Ms Di Lorenzo had lived and worked in Berlin for several years. Two Americans were among the wounded, US state department spokesman John Kirby said.

Officers have been carrying out raids across Germany as the international manhunt continued for the failed Tunisian asylum seeker with German police under fire for a string of blunders that let him go free.

Four men were arrested in Dortmund - where Amri once lived with a hate preacher. The men have reportedly had close contact with him in recent months.

Extreme measures to capture prime suspect The €100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Anis Amri, the Tunisian prime suspect in Berlin's deadly truck attack, is a rarity in Europe. Rewards in recent years have been offered over war crimes, a political assassination and a far-left group's assault on the US embassy in Athens. One example is notorious Serbian war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, who eluded arrest for 16 years, saw his bounty go up to 10 million euros ($14 million at the time) before he was finally arrested in May 2011 to face trial in The Hague. However, no-one cashed in on the reward, for the 'Butcher of Bosnia' was tracked down through intelligence work. By contrast, in the United States the practice is well entrenched, going back to the Wild West days of Jesse James and Billy the Kid. The highest reward ever offered by the FBI was $25 million for information leading to the capture of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, killed in a US Navy Seal raid in Pakistan in May 2011. The United States last Friday matched that figure for the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, more than doubling the $10 million originally on his head to $25 million. Advertisement

A flat was also raided in Berlin, but was empty, and a shelter for asylum seekers was searched in Emmerich, eastern Germany, where one man was questioned.

The 24-year-old, who has a 100,000 euro reward on his head, was under the surveillance of German intelligence for several months following his arrival in the country in 2015.

He had been arrested three times this year and his asylum application was rejected - but deportation papers were never served and he disappeared.

MailOnline can also reveal that he first dodged prison in his native Tunisia around five years ago after fleeing following a violent robbery. He was jailed for five years in absentia.

He arrived in Italy in 2011 and pretended to be a child migrant - even though he was 19 - but then rioted inside his detention centre, which was set on fire. He was then jailed for four years.

After his release Italy failed to deport him twice because Tunisia refused to take him back and he fled Italy for Germany, arriving in July 2015.

He was under investigation for planning a 'serious act of violence against the state' and counter-terrorism officials had exchanged information about him last month.

Reports suggest intelligence services might have even lost track of Amri as recently as just a few weeks ago after he went underground.

Relatives of prime suspect Anis Amri have urged him to turn himself in to police.

Amri, who turned 24 today, is understood to have left Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and spent time in Italy before entering Germany last year.

His asylum claim was rejected and authorities identified him as a threat before the Berlin outrage.

His brother Abdelkader Amri told the Associated Press: 'I ask him to turn himself in to the police. If it is proved that he is involved, we dissociate ourselves from it.'

His father Mustapha says his son must be punished if he was behind the atrocity and said he son was a drug-taking criminal.

He told The Times: 'He dropped out of school and travelled to Italy; he was involved in a robbery and a case of burning down a school and camp.

'He spent four years in jail in Italy where he met extremist groups which attracted him. He drank with his friends, which led to his arrest several times. His name also came up in many court cases regarding his use of cannabis, robbery and violence.'

Amri's family, who remain in Tunisia, were questioned by local police as his siblings condemned acts of terrorism, saying Amri 'deserves every condemnation' if he is guilty of the massacre. His father Mustapha is pictured above at his home in Oueslatia

Family: Abdelkader Amri, the brother of 24-year-old Anis Amri, and his heartbroken mother Nourhane Amri poses with a portrait of her son Anis Amri

German authorities have revealed there is a 100,000 euro (£84,000) reward for information leading to his capture

A market worker stands in front of a makeshift memorial near the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Protection: A workman helps to place a concrete barrier outside the Christmas market at Breitscheid square in Berlin

Riot police detain a demonstrator during a vigil of right-wing groups in front of the CDU federal centre in Berlin. The protesters had been hitting out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the market attack

Supporters of the far-left movement hold placards depicting a heart and a banner reading 'Berlin is better without Nazis' as they hold a demonstration

A protester holds a sheet reading 'Death to Fascism' during an anti right-wing demonstration near the scene of the attack

A steady stream of mourners have visited the scene of the atrocity, with many leaving flowers and candles on the ground

A group of refugees from the Tempelhof emergency shelter were seen laying flowers near the site of the attack

Manhunt: The ISIS killer behind Germany's worst terror attack since 1980 on Monday night has been given an 18 hour head start after police bungled the probe - Amri's blood may have been in the cab and believe the driver is injured

On Monday night, the Tunisian radical - who has used six different aliases and three different nationalities - is believed to have driven a 40-tonne truck through a Christmas market, killing 12 and injuring dozens.

Germany has 7,000 terror suspects and finds it 'impossible' to monitor them all Germany is finding it 'almost impossible' to keep track of around 7,000 potential terror suspects in the country, a former British intelligence chief has warned. Richard Barrett, who was head of counter-terrorism at MI6, said the authorities were finding the number of 'live' cases unmanageable. The grim assessment came as German security services face difficult questions following the Berlin Christmas market massacre. A European arrest warrant issued for Amri reveals the fugitive has used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities. Photographs show how he has changed his appearance over the years. Mr Barrett, who was in a key role at MI6 when the September 11 attacks took place in 2001, said it was not surprising that some extremists slipped through the surveillance net. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there were 550 'really extreme potential terrorists on the books' in Germany. 'In addition to that though if you include all the Lander (local regions) in Germany they have about 7,000 live cases,' he said. 'As you can imagine, that is an almost impossible number to control. He said the wider group of suspects were people who had 'come to attention in this context of radical extremism' and were 'worthy of investigation'. Advertisement

German media are reporting that the fingerprints of Tunisian suspect Anis Amri have been found on the truck that was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin.

Daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR reported Thursday that Amri's fingerprints were found on the driver's door of the Polish-registered truck. The daily Berliner Zeitung reported that his fingerprints were found on the steering wheel.

It has since emerged that he was on the radar of US agencies who say Amri researched bomb-making online and was barred from flying to America having communicated with ISIS using the Telegram messaging service.

Meanwhile, an Israeli woman, Dalia Elyakim, became the first named victim of the attack. She was standing with her husband Rami when the truck rammed into them.

Last night it emerged that Amri also tried to recruit an accomplice for a terror plot – which the authorities knew about – but that he still remained at large.

The potentially fatal mistakes heaped further shame on the German security services, who wasted several hours questioning an innocent Pakistani asylum seeker in the aftermath of the truck rampage, which killed 12 shoppers and wounded 48.

German police are in a desperate race to detain Amri, described as being probably armed and 'highly dangerous' before any further terrorist attack.

A senior foreign German politician today blamed the atrocity on 'institutional political correctness', arguing that Amri would not have been free to act if police had enforced the law.

Meanwhile a European arrest warrant issued for Amri reveals the fugitive has used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities. Photographs show how he has changed his appearance over the years.

Yesterday his family, who remain in Tunisia, were questioned by local police as his siblings condemned acts of terrorism, saying Amri 'deserves every condemnation' if he is guilty of the massacre.

Amri became Europe's most wanted man after his identity papers were found in the footwell of the lorry used in the atrocity.

Last night it emerged that Amri's application for asylum was turned down last summer because he did not possess the correct papers.

But under a peculiarity of the German asylum system he was granted 'toleration' papers allowing him to stay temporarily, for unknown reasons. He was due to be deported before the end of the year.

The German authorities were in touch with their Tunisian counterparts to get him a passport so he could be sent home. But Tunisia reportedly said it had no record of him being a citizen.

The country has now been accused of delaying his extradition as it emerged new ID papers only arrived in Germany two days after the carnage.

He was put on a danger list shortly after arriving in Germany in June last year, which meant authorities considered him prone to extreme violence. Yet just how much surveillance he was under remains unclear.

CHANGING FACES OF PRIME SUSPECT ANIS AMRI A European arrest warrant issued for Amri reveals the fugitive has used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities. Here, four photographs show how he has changed his appearance over the years: Previous: Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992 – a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - was apparently recently arrested for GBH but vanished before he could be charged. He was also found with a fake passport A wanted notice for a Tunisian suspect in the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin says the man should be considered armed and dangerous Advertisement

Germany's obsession with privacy let the Christmas market killer escape A near-total ban on CCTV in public spaces means that German police and security services have no live footage of the Christmas market massacre or the killer driver fleeing the scene, it was revealed today. Draconian German privacy rules mean filming in public places is largely prohibited - and this year politicians blocked attempts to install cameras on Berlin's main squares. It is a backlash against tyrannical control of the population by the Nazis and then state-sponsored surveillance by the Stasi in Cold War East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell. One German journalist told the Mail: 'Then, the state knew everything about you. As a result, the public now fears it knowing anything about you.' Police say it has gone too far and means that the driver of the truck who fled on foot from Breitscheidplatz square cannot be followed on camera. It even led to panicked officers arresting the wrong man, Pakistani asylum seeker Naveed Baluch, 23, who was seen jumping a red light nearby. Chancellor Angela Merkel has been at the vanguard of the privacy campaign and this year passed a law banning CCTV in offices to protect employees' rights. And long-established data regulations mean that cameras in public places - including Breitscheidplatz square where the terror took place on Monday - is rare. Only railway stations and public transport are exempt. In June Berlin's then interior minister tried to change local law to install CCTV where crime levels are highest, including the busy Alexanderplatz but it was sunk by local politicians. Police say they have been hindered by the lack of CCTV in the and have called for more cameras in the wake of the lorry attack. Bodo Pfalzgraf of the German police union said: 'We need better and more intelligent surveillance in public places, and Monday's tragedy has shown precisely why. 'We would know a lot more about the perpetrator by now if we had been allowed to install video cameras on Breitscheidplatz square. We couldn't have prevented the attack, but our investigation would be more advanced by now. CCTV can save lives'. Advertisement

The German authorities watched Amri for several months this year to try to determine whether he had planned a robbery to fund the purchase of automatic weapons for a possible attack with accomplices. But the covert surveillance operation ceased after the security services could not prove their suspicions, a judicial source said.

In July he was arrested for an unknown offence while travelling on a bus to Berlin, and was later charged with assault for a knife fight over drugs. In August he was arrested for possessing a fake Italian document, but again released.

He had contact with preachers who promoted jihad among young German men who converted to Islam. According to media reports, Amri lived for a time with a hate preacher in Dortmund who is under arrest for his involvement with IS.

He is also known to have attended hate sermons by Abu Walaa, now in custody after being arrested last month for radicalising young men. The so-called 'faceless preacher' delivered online video sermons with his back to the camera, often draped in a black hood and cloak.

The preacher, who is believed to have three wives, had 25,000 Facebook followers and even offered his own app in 2014.

Apparently Walaa had wanted to send Amri to Syria. But he did not want to, preferring instead to formulate plans for an attack in Germany.

Another investigator said: 'Supposedly the evidence was not strong enough to arrest him.'

A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse.

He was in contact with Islamist militants in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and was known to German security agencies, the state's Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger said.

As the hunt for Europe's most wanted man continues, it was revealed that:

Amri, who was born in the desert town of Tataouine in 1992 – a well-known ISIS stronghold close to the Libyan border - is believed to have entered Europe through Italy with Syrian refugees.

His father told Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio that his son left his homeland about seven years ago, spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused in a fire at a school there then moved to Germany more than a year ago. Official records suggest he arrived in Italy in 2012 and there are reports that he posed as a minor to sneak his way in to the continent.

Citing security officials, Mosaique FM said Amri had been convicted in absentia for aggravated theft with violence in Tunisia and sentenced to five years in prison. No dates were given.

Tunisian anti-terror police interrogated Amri's relatives Wednesday in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia. It is not known how many family members were present.

One of his brothers said Amri deserves 'every condemnation' if he is guilty of the Christmas market massacre.

Abdelkader Amri said the family 'rejects terrorism' and suggested they would cut ties with fugitive brother Anis Amri if he was found to be behind the atrocity.

He said: 'When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime.'

But, he added, 'if he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists'.

Will the lorry killer strike again? Police and the security services are hunting the terrorist behind the Christmas market attack

Candles, flowers ans wreathes have been laid near the spot where the lorry was driven in to crowds of people at the market

Link? A Facebook profile in his name shows 'likes' linked to Tunisian terror group Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian group with followers linked to extremists who murdered 22 at Tunis' Bardo Museum in March 2015 and then 39 tourists at a beach resort in Sousse

Speaking from his home in Tunisia, another brother, Walid, 30, revealed he had not heard from Anis in two weeks.

Truck attacker was a troubled inmate in Italy Italian authorities say the Tunisian fugitive in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was a problem inmate when he was in Italy. The Italian justice ministry on Thursday confirmed media reports that 24-year-old Anis Amri was repeatedly admonished and transferred among Sicilian prisons for bad conduct. Prison records say he bullied inmates and tried to spark insurrections. In all, Amri was held in six different prisons on Sicily, where he served three years for setting a fire at a refugee center and making threats, among other charges. But Italy apparently recorded no signs that Amri was becoming radicalized to embrace extremist violence. Amri reached Italy in 2011, along with tens of thousands of young Tunisian men who arrived by boat during the Arab Spring revolutions. Advertisement

Truck driver Walid said Anis first left Tunisia for Italy in 2011 but 'always wanted to go on to Germany to find work. Three or for years later he managed that.'

His brother added: 'He told me often that he couldn't find a flat In Germany and was sleeping here and there. But during our last contact two weeks ago he said everything was good with him.

'He comes from a family of nine children and always sent money back to us. I don't know where it came from. We live as a struggling family, we live a totally normal life.'

He said he last communicated with his brother over Facebook two weeks ago and does not have a mobile number for the fugitive.

'We are as shocked as everyone else in the world,' he added. 'We have no contact to Isis. I only learned my brother was being hunted over Facebook. I am affected the same as everyone else by this news.'

Sister Najoua said: 'I was the first to see his picture and it came as a total shock. I can't believe my brother could do such a thing.

'He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful.'

Despite an unfolding international manhunt the first pictures released of Amri in Germany showed his eyes deliberately covered, thought to be because of strict privacy laws there.

Police are believed to have found blood in the truck's cab and now assume that the suspect may be badly injured.

Squads of officers have been to every hospital in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. They also arrested another unnamed suspect in connection with the terror attack but have since ruled him out.

Amri was living in Berlin but a police operation is now underway in North Rhine-Westphalia - the industrial region of Germany containing Cologne, Dortmund and Bonn. His ID was issued on the town of Kleve close to the border with the Netherlands and Belgium.

The atrocity could be a political disaster for Mrs Merkel, who will seek a historic fourth term as chancellor next year. She has staked much of her political capital on opening Germany's doors to refugees.

TUNISIAN TRUCK SUSPECT'S DEPORTATION PAPERS ARRIVE TWO DAYS AFTER BERLIN TERROR ATTACK A German regional minister Wednesday accused Tunisia of delaying for months the extradition of a man now wanted over the Berlin market attack, saying required papers had only just arrived, two days after the carnage. The asylum request launched by the man hunted by police, identified by media as Anis Amri had been rejected in June, said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state. 'But the man could not be deported because he had no valid travel documents,' said Jaeger. 'The procedure for drawing up a document in lieu of a passport was initiated in August, but Tunisia disputed the fact that this person was one of its nationals,' he added. Amri is the chief suspect in Monday's fatal truck attack in Berlin and a €100,000 reward has been offered for his immediate capture Only after a months-long wait - during which German security services investigated the man for a suspected attack plan - Tunisia came through with the papers, Jaeger told a press conference. Finally, the new Tunisian travel document 'arrived today' in Germany, two days after the Berlin Christmas market attack. Germany has repeatedly accused Tunisia and other Maghreb states of stalling on the repatriation of its nationals from Germany. The subject sparked tensions after the mass sexual assaults in the German city of Cologne, blamed largely on North African and Arab men, last New Year's Eve. Germany this year moved to declare Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as so-called safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests. But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those nations. Advertisement

Too little too late? Berlin police install terrorist-proof concrete barriers around the Christmas market as it reopens today – three days after 12 people were massacred in lorry attack

Police have today used concrete barriers designed to stop terror attacks to surround the Berlin Christmas market struck by a deadly truck rampage.

Stalls on Breitscheidplatz square opened again today three days after the 25-tonne lorry was used as a weapon to murder 12 and injure 48 more.

Critics of the German authorities claimed the barriers should already have been there after the CIA and MI6 warned them that their Christmas markets were among the top targets for terrorists.

The barriers can stop lorries even when they are travelling at high speeds.

Security: Police have today used concrete barriers designed to stop terror attacks to surround the Berlin Christmas market struck by a deadly truck rampage

New start: Stalls on Breitscheidplatz square opened again today three days after the 25-tonne lorry was used as a weapon to murder 12 and injure 48 more

Powerful: The barriers can stop lorries even when they are travelling at high speeds

People walk through the re-opened Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz square in Berlin

Bomb scare halts underground and shuts shopping centre - and police raid a coach Police secures the area near the Schoenhauser Allee shopping mall in Berlin Berlin's underground system was halted after suspicious package was found. All trains wee suspended because of an item reported to police at Prenzlauer Berg in north-east of the city. The shopping centre next door was also closed as a precaution. Police are in Schönhauser Allee and traffic has been stopped. German police also searched a coach in the southwestern town of Heilbronn on Thursday, newspaper Heilbronner Stimme reported, adding that the search was apparently linked to the hunt for the suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack. Stimme later tweeted that the all-clear had been given in Heilbronn and that a mix-up had led to the connection being made with the attack suspect. Advertisement

The Berlin Christmas market reopened at 11am as the grieving city sought a return to normal life and police hunted for the prime suspect in the attack.

The wooden huts selling mulled wine, sausages, toys and seasonal decorations are run by people who saw the horror unfold.

But the section where the truck cut a bloody swathe through the market on Monday remains sealed off.

The Berlin association of market vendors said the decision to reopen the market was not an easy one.

'We are still stunned and deeply shocked. Our thoughts are with the injured, the dead and their families,' the association's chairman Michael Roden said.

'In a situation like this it's very difficult to know what the right thing to do is.'

The Berlin Christmas market reopened at 11am as the grieving city sought a return to normal life and police hunted for the prime suspect in the attack

Twelve people were killed and 48 injured when a driver rammed a truck into the crowded market, crushing yuletide revellers and knocking over stalls and Christmas trees.

Out of respect for the victims, Roden said the market on Berlin's central Breitscheidplatz would refrain from playing party music and keep garish lights turned off.

Two memorial sites are planned where visitors can pay their respects, the association added.

Christmas markets are a much-cherished annual tradition in Germany.

In the wake of the attack, the authorities urged organisers across the country to keep their markets open, while beefing up security.

Meanwhile, a European manhunt is under way for 24-year-old Anis Amri, a rejected Tunisian asylum seeker who has been named as the main suspect in the attack after his asylum papers were found in the cab of the truck.

WAS PETTY CRIMINAL RADICALISED IN A JAIL CELL? By Mario Ledwith, Emily Kent Smith and Emine Sinmaz for the Daily Mail As a teenager growing up in a poor part of Tunisia, Anis Amri spent his evenings chasing girls, drinking alcohol and indulging in petty thieving. He had apparently grown apart from the Muslim faith that played a central role in his childhood. But a scrape with the law after making the perilous journey to Europe aged 18 with a group of Syrian refugees saw him embrace religion once again. Relatives yesterday revealed how Europe's most wanted man began praying in a possible act of desperation as he spent four years in Italy largely locked up in jail. It was then that his journey into the dark world of extremism is thought to have begun, which led to him fraternising with notorious hate preachers. One of nine children, he grew up on an estate in the small town of Oueslatia in northern Tunisia's Kairouan province. Speaking from Tunisia yesterday, the fugitive's brother Walid insisted that his sibling was a 'calm and nice' man when he left for Europe in 2011 in search of work. But his behaviour apparently changed after he was jailed in Italy shortly after arriving the following year. 'We went to mosque when we were younger and then Anis started to drink alcohol when he was a teenager and he had girlfriends,' Walid said. 'My brother changed after he was released from the Italian prison. Before he was drinking and he had a girlfriend, but after he was released his life became secret. He told me when he was in Italy that he was praying again.' His lengthy spell in an Italian jail housing mafia bosses and gangsters was for smashing up a migrant centre. Amri, now 24, crossed the border into Germany in July 2015 following his release, and tried to maintain a low profile. He was known to German security officials, who were yesterday forced to reveal how a series of errors allowed him to slip through the net. He was arrested in Germany three times this year alone, local media reported. And despite being refused asylum in July, he was given temporary permission to stay until the end of the year. It is thought the hold-up was because Tunisian officials denied he was a citizen there. Documents proving that he was Tunisian only arrived in Germany yesterday. Amri went by at least six different names and claimed to be from both Egypt and Lebanon. One of his many German homes was an asylum centre in Emmerich, North Rhine-Westphalia, which was yesterday raided by police. His Facebook profile revealed links to Ansar al-Sharia, a Tunisian terror group connected to the 2015 Sousse beach attack that left 38 dead. He is also believed to have known Abu Walaa, an Iraqi fanatic known as 'the faceless preacher' as he has delivered video sermons with his back to the camera. Relatives said they had not heard from Amri for 15 days. Advertisement

Carnage: The lorry used to kill a dozen people in Berlin on Monday night was towed away from the scene on Tuesday

Horror 2016: These are all the terror attacks carried out on German soil in the past year, claiming the lives of 22 people

'Turn yourself in': Heartbroken Berlin terror suspect's Tunisian family make public call for him to give himself up as they say they will disown him

The heartbroken family of the Berlin terror suspect have pleaded with him to give himself up to police and warned that they will disown him.

Anis Amri, who turns 24 on Thursday, is the main suspect in the attack on the Christmas market in the German capital which killed 12 people and is now the subject of a international manhunt.

He is originally from Tunisia but left seven years ago to travel Italy and it is thought he entered Germany just over a year ago.

Amri's brother Abdelkader, who says he will disown his brother if it is proved he carried out the Berlin attack

His other brother Walid, right, also weeps outside the family home in Tunisia and says the family will disown him

Amri's mother Nourhane was also seen in front of the family home in the small town of Oueslatia

Death toll could rise as the injured fight for their lives Berlin's state government has said 12 people are still being treated for severe injuries after Monday night's truck attack on a Christmas market, and that an unspecified number of them are still in critical condition. Another 14 people with less serious injuries were also still hospitalized, while 30 others have been discharged. Twelve people were killed in the attack. Berlin's state health ministry on Thursday raised the number of market attack victims treated in Berlin hospitals to 56, up from 48. It said some victims had reached hospitals on their own after the attack. Advertisement

And today his family who still live in the small Tunisian town of Oueslatia appeared outside their home where they tearfully called for him to go the authorities.

His brother Abdelkader told reporters: 'I ask him to turn himself in to the police. If it is proved that he is involved, we dissociate ourselves from it.

'When I saw the picture of my brother in the media, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm in shock, and can't believe it's him who committed this crime.

'If he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists.'

Meanwhile his sister Najoua added: 'I can't believe my brother could do such a thing.'

He never made us feel there was anything wrong. We were in touch through Facebook and he was always smiling and cheerful.'

It comes after his father Mustapha was also pictured outside his run-down shack of a home home in the small town of Oueslatia, where his wanted child Anis Amri grew up.

He was pictured steering his horse and makeshift cart along the street before stopping to talk to his other son, Walid.

It comes after Mr Amri told the Times that even before his son left for Italy, he had been in trouble with the law after turning to drugs and dropping out of school.

He said: 'He was like all the other kids in the village, he went to primary school near here, and continued his secondary school in Kairouan but he dropped out due to poverty.

'He worked in farm fields and sometimes with street vendors. He drank with his friends, which led to his arrest several times. His name also came up in many court cases regarding his use of cannabis, robbery and violence.'

British trucker raises £50,000 for family of murdered driver Yorkshire trucker Dave Duncan is raising money for the family of the Berlin victim A British truck driver has raised nearly £50,000 via crowdfunding for the family of the Polish driver found dead in the truck used in the attack on a Berlin Christmas market. Dave Duncan said on the website GoFundMe, where he created the campaign on Tuesday, that the story of 37-year-old Lukasz Urban had shocked him. 'Although I did not know Lukasz, the story of his untimely departure shocked and disgusted me. 'So, as a fellow trucker, I decided to reach out to the trucking community and beyond to help in some small way,' he said, signing off with the words 'RIP Lukasz... from the truckers of the UK and beyond'. According to the website, 3,400 people had made donations. Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into a crowded holiday market late Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims. Urban, who worked for his cousin Ariel Zurawski's transport company in northern Poland, was found killed with a gunshot in the passenger seat. An autopsy indicated that the driver was still alive at the time of the attack, Bild newspaper reported. Advertisement

Mr Amri stops to speak with his other son Walid. He has previously said how his son had run-ins with the law in Tunisia after he turned to drugs

A picture reportedly showing the run-down house where Amri's family still live in Tunisia

Meanwhile, Mosaique FM quoted Amri's father as saying that his son left Tunisia about seven years ago and spent four years in a prison in Italy after being accused in a fire at a school.

He then moved to Germany more than a year ago. The father did not provide details and said he had no contact with his son, although his brothers did.

He added: 'He called his siblings but never spoke to me, he never sent money, but he once sent a mobile phone and a box of chocolates with a Tunisian friend of his who lived in Italy.'

Authorities have also confirmed that the suspect has a history of petty crime and drug dealing.

Amri's asylum-office papers for a stay of deportation in Germany were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry, pictured, that cut a swathe of death and destruction through the festive crowd

The aftermath of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin which shows some of the stalls that have been destroyed

Amri's asylum-office papers for a stay of deportation in Germany were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry that cut a swathe of death and destruction through the festive crowd.

The warrant said the dark-haired, brown-eyed and possibly bearded suspect had used six false names as he dodged security services and mingled with radical Islamist preachers, some of whom are now in custody.

He had already been in the cross-hairs of counter-terror agencies, and a probe had been launched suspecting he was preparing 'a serious act of violence against the state,' said Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

The Berlin prosecutors, who were in charge of the case, said Amri had been suspected of planning a burglary meant to raise cash to buy automatic weapons, 'possibly to carry out an attack'.

Surveillance had then however shown that Amri was working as a small-time drug dealer in Berlin and once had a bar fight with another dealer, a statement said, adding that the surveillance had ceased in September.