An Austrian teenager has been charged with persuading a 12-year-old boy in neighbouring Germany to carry out a failed suicide bombing attack on a crowded Christmas market.

The 18-year-old, named only as Lorenz K under Austrian privacy laws, is accused of giving the boy advice via WhatsApp on how to make a suicide bomb and directing the attempted attack.

The boy was arrested after a failed attempt to detonate a nail bomb at a German market just weeks before the Berlin lorry attack on a Christmas market.

The charge aginast Lorenz K is just one of several brought by prosecutors in a 55-page indictment, in which he is accused of attempted murder, incitement to murder and planning terror attacks.

The teen, who was born in Austria to immigrant parents from Albania, admits membership of Islamic State and the Levant (Isil) but has denied all other charges.

When he was arrested almost a year ago the Austrian interior minister described him as a serious “presence” in the jihadist world. But the indictment is the first time the charges against him have been made public.

It is also the first time he has been linked to the case of the 12-year-old attempted suicide bomber, who made headlines around the world when he was arrested in December 2016.