We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again.

A huge manhunt is underway for Anis Amri, who security services believe has carried out the brutal murder of 12 people after they found identification papers bearing his name in the driver's cab.

Speaking in the hours after the attack from his home in Tunisia, his father said the 24-year-old "left to Germany a bit over a year ago with a group of refugees where he presented himself as a Syrian national seeking refuge".

In an interview with The Times from a village near the city of Kairouan, the unnamed dad added: "He left Tunisia March 2011 in what is called 'al-Horqa', a wave of illegal immigration shortly after the uprising.

"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 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."