Berlin : A Tunisian man arrested in Germany in possession of the deadly poison ricin and bomb-making material was planning a biological attack, the national police chief said today.

“Very concrete preparations had been made for an act with a … biological bomb, which is a first for Germany,” Holger Muench, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, told public broadcaster ARD.German police commandos on June 12 stormed the Cologne apartment of the 29-year-old Tunisian migrant identified only as Sief Allah H. and discovered “toxic substances” that turned out to be ricin.

Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is 6,000 times more lethal than cyanide and has no known antidote. German news weekly Der Spiegel has reported the man was thought to have been following instructions disseminated by the Islamic State group on how to build a bomb containing ricin.

Prosecutors have charged that he was “strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons” but it remained unclear whether he was actively plotting an attack. </s> BERLIN - German police said Wednesday they had foiled a biological attack with last week's arrest of a Tunisian suspected jihadist in possession of the deadly poison ricin and bomb-making material.

"Very concrete preparations had been made for an act with a ... biological bomb, which is a first for Germany," said Holger Muench, head of the BKA Federal Criminal Police Office.

German police commandos on June 12 stormed the Cologne apartment of the 29-year-old Tunisian identified only as Sief Allah H. and discovered "toxic substances" that turned out to be ricin.

Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is lethal in minute doses if swallowed, inhaled or injected and 6,000 times more potent than cyanide, with no known antidote. Muench said, speaking to German public radio, that "we became aware of this person a few months ago, and then evidence emerged pointing to links to the so-called Islamic State".

The Tunisian man, who has been charged with possession of weapons of war and planning a serious act of violence against the state, was thought to have followed instructions on making a ricin bomb disseminated online by the IS. "There are instructions on how to do this, including by Islamist organisations, on the internet, and this person was obviously guided by that," Muench said. Prosecutors have said he was "strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons" - but they reiterated Wednesday they still lacked concrete indications or details of an attack plan. The head of the BND foreign intelligence service, Hans-Georg Maassen, said that a "very likely" attack had been prevented thanks to "cooperation between security service at the national and international level," news agency DPA reported.

Bild daily has reported Germany received a warning from the CIA based on the suspect's online purchases.

The domestic intelligence service BfV said it also received a tip-off over a telephone hotline about the Tunisian, who is married to a German woman who recently converted to Islam, DPA reported.

During the police raid, said Muench, "we found a large number of castor seeds from which to make (ricin), as well as the utensils you need to make an explosive device".

"Which concrete target he had in mind we don't know yet ... and the question of possible accomplices also remains open."

Prosecutors say Sief Allah H. started buying the equipment and ingredients to make ricin in mid-May - including online purchases of thousands of "castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder".

Police had found over 3,000 castor seeds and 84 milligrams of ricin, as well as 950 grams of pyrotechnic powder, two bottles of flammable liquid, wires soldered to light bulbs and 240 metal balls.

He had been in contact with radical Islamists and had tried twice last year to travel via Turkey to Syria, "presumably to the 'Islamic State'" bases there, they said in a statement.

The case comes after French authorities in mid-May said they had foiled an attack possibly involving ricin with the arrest of a 20-year-old Egyptian man.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said it would have been committed "with explosives or ricin, this very powerful poison", and that the suspect "had tutorials that showed how to make ricin-based poisons".

The Egyptian man was tracked down through a pro-jihadist social media account, a source close to the investigation said.

Germany remains on high alert after several deadly attacks claimed by the IS group, including a 2016 truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market by Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri that claimed 12 lives.

Other attacks by radicalised Islamists saw a 26-year-old Palestinian stab six people, killing one, in Hamburg last year, and a 17-year-old Afghan with an axe attack five train passengers in Munich before police shot him dead in 2016.

Muench said security services are now more worried about the threat of radicalised individuals, including 770 persons considered by police as potentially violent, than an organised large-scale attack.

After the defeat of major IS bastions in Syria, he said, "we now consider a major attack like we saw in Paris and Brussels not entirely unlikely, but less likely because the so-called Islamic State has been weakened quite substantially."

"But we have a large number of radicalised persons and we need to keep an eye on them". </s> A Tunisian man arrested in Germany in possession of the deadly poison ricin and bomb-making material was planning a biological attack, the national police chief said Wednesday.

“Very concrete preparations had been made for an act with a … biological bomb, which is a first for Germany,” Holger Muench, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, told public broadcaster ARD.

German police commandos on June 12 stormed the Cologne flat of the 29-year-old Tunisian migrant identified only as Sief Allah H. and discovered “toxic substances” that turned out to be ricin.

Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is 6,000 times more lethal than cyanide and has no known antidote.

German news weekly has reported the man was thought to have been following instructions disseminated by Islamic State on how to build a bomb containing ricin.

Prosecutors have charged that he was “strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons” but it remained unclear whether he was actively plotting an attack.

Muench said “we became aware of this person a few months ago, and then evidence emerged pointing to links to the so-called Islamic State”.

The case was an example of “good cooperation between security authorities, nationally and internationally”, he said.

daily has reported Germany received a tip-off from the CIA based on the suspect’s online purchases.

Islamist militant attacks using toxicological substances are possible at any time in Germany, a source in the BfV domestic intelligence service warned.

During the raid, said Muench, “we found a large number of castor seeds from which to make it (ricin), as well as the utensils you need to make an explosive device”.

“Which concrete target he had in mind we don’t know yet … and the question of possible accomplices also remains open,” said Muench.

Prosecutors say Sief Allah H. started buying the equipment and ingredients to make ricin in mid-May – including an online purchase of “a thousand castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder”.

He succeeded in manufacturing the toxin earlier this month.

The case comes less than a month after French authorities said they had foiled a terror attack possibly involving the use of ricin. Two brothers of Egyptian origin were arrested.

Germany remains on high alert after several deadly attacks claimed by the IS group, including a 2016 truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market by Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri that claimed 12 lives. </s> BERLIN: German police said Wednesday they had foiled a biological attack with last week´s arrest of a Tunisian suspected militant in possession of the deadly poison ricin and bomb-making material.

"Very concrete preparations had been made for an act with a ... biological bomb, which is a first for Germany," said Holger Muench, head of the BKA Federal Criminal Police Office. German police commandos on June 12 stormed the Cologne apartment of the 29-year-old Tunisian identified only as Sief Allah H. and discovered "toxic substances" that turned out to be ricin.

Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is lethal in minute doses if swallowed, inhaled or injected and 6,000 times more potent than cyanide, with no known antidote. Muench said, speaking to German public radio, that "we became aware of this person a few months ago, and then evidence emerged pointing to links to the so-called Islamic State".

The Tunisian man, who has been charged with possession of weapons of war and planning a serious act of violence against the state, was thought to have followed instructions on making a ricin bomb disseminated online by the IS.

"There are instructions on how to do this, including by militants' organisations, on the Internet, and this person was obviously guided by that," Muench said. Prosecutors have said he was "strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons", but they reiterated Wednesday they still lacked concrete indications or details of an attack plan.

The head of the BND foreign intelligence service, Hans-Georg Maassen, said that a "very likely" attack had been prevented thanks to "cooperation between security service at the national and international level," news agency DPA reported.

Bild daily has reported Germany received a warning from the CIA based on the suspect´s online purchases. The domestic intelligence service BfV said it also received a tip-off over a telephone hotline about the Tunisian, who is married to a German woman who recently converted to Islam, DPA reported.

During the police raid, said Muench, "we found a large number of castor seeds from which to make (ricin), as well as the utensils you need to make an explosive device". "Which concrete target he had in mind we don't know yet ... and the question of possible accomplices also remains open."

Prosecutors say Sief Allah H started buying the equipment and ingredients to make ricin in mid-May, including online purchases of thousands of "castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder".

Police had found over 3,000 castor seeds and 84 milligrams of ricin, as well as 950 grams of pyrotechnic powder, two bottles of flammable liquid, wires soldered to light bulbs and 240 metal balls. He had been in contact with militants and had tried twice last year to travel via Turkey to Syria, "presumably to the ´Islamic State´" bases there, they said in a statement.

The case comes after French authorities in mid-May said they had foiled an attack possibly involving ricin with the arrest of a 20-year-old Egyptian man. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said it would have been committed "with explosives or ricin, this very powerful poison", and that the suspect "had tutorials that showed how to make ricin-based poisons".

The Egyptian man was tracked down through a pro-militant social media account, a source close to the investigation said. Germany remains on high alert after several deadly attacks claimed by the IS group, including a 2016 truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market by Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri that claimed 12 lives. </s> BERLIN (Reuters) - A 29-year-old Tunisian arrested last week on suspicion of producing the lethal toxic ricin was in contact with radical Islamists, and twice tried unsuccessfully to reach Islamic State in Syria, Germany’s top federal prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Peter Frank, head of the GBA Federal Prosecutor’s Office, told broadcaster SWR that the man, Sief Allah H., was not currently believed to have been a member of Islamic State, but was deeply involved with the Islamist scene.

“He was deeply anchored in the Islamist spectrum and was in contract with people from this spectrum,” Frank told the broadcaster.

The man was arrested in Cologne on suspicion of planning an Islamist-motivated attack and building a “biological weapon” with ricin, a poison found in castor beans.

The GBA on Wednesday said 3,150 grains of ricin - all ordered via the Internet - were seized during a search of the suspect’s home, along with 84.3 mg of prepared ricin.

German broadcaster ARD said even one ricin grain could be deadly for a child.

No comment was immediately available from prosecutors on the significance of the amount of ricin found. The number of ricin grains found were triple the amount initially reported by GBA.

Frank said the evidence at the scene indicated that the suspect was considering building an explosive device, but no possible target or timetable had been determined.

It was the first time Germany had dealt with a possible attack with a biological weapon, Frank said, although Islamist militants had discussed such an attack for some time in their communications.

“Islamist terrorists have repeatedly promoted diverse instructions, including for production of ricin from ricin grains, on their advertising channels,” Frank told SWR.

The case has fanned concerns about a possible Islamist attack using the lethal toxin after a similar case in France last month.

A source in Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence service said Islamists could stage such an attack in Germany at any time. Islamic State militants had experimented with ricin in the past and had also manufactured it, the source said.

Holger Muench, president of the Federal Criminal Office, told the broadcaster RBB-Inforadio in a separate interview that the Tunisian suspect had manufactured ricin and objects were found in searches that could be used to make a bomb.

GBA said the investigation showed the suspect had been in touch with people from the “radical Islamist” community, but investigators were still trying to determine if those people were themselves members of a militant group.

It said investigators also found 250 metal bearings, two bottles of acetone nail polish remover, wires and 950 grams of a grey powder that contained aluminum and explosive materials from fireworks. </s> BERLIN: A source in Germany's BfV domestic intelligence service said on Wednesday that Islamists could stage an attack in Germany at any time with the lethal toxin ricin.

A week ago, a 29-year-old Tunisian, named by authorities as Sief Allah H., was arrested in Cologne on suspicion of planning an Islamist-motivated attack and building a "biological weapon" using ricin.

The BfV source said Islamic State militants had experimented with ricin in the past and had also manufactured it. Islamic State, the source added, had offered detailed instructions on how to produce ricin in a handbook.

Holger Muench, president of the Federal Criminal Office, told the broadcaster RBB-Inforadio that the suspect had manufactured ricin, a poison found in castor beans, and that objects had been found in searches that could be used to make a bomb.

He added that the target for the suspected attack was not clear. </s> BERLIN (AP) — A call from the public was key to foiling an Islamic extremist's plan to use the toxin ricin to carry out a deadly attack in Germany, security officials said today.

The head of the country's domestic intelligence agency said a phone-in tip helped authorities confirm their suspicions about a 29-year-old Tunisian man in the city of Cologne. The suspect, named only as Sief Allah H. in line with German privacy laws, was arrested last week and remains in custody.

Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV intelligence agency, said the alleged plot showed that the danger of an attack in Germany remains high.

According to federal prosecutors, about 3,150 castor bean seeds and 84.3 milligrams of ricin were found in the suspect's apartment along with the components needed to make a bomb.

Tiny amounts of ricin can kill an adult if eaten, injected or inhaled.

Prosecutors alleged that H. bought the seeds online and used instructions posted online by the Islamic State group to make ricin.

The suspect, who is married to a German woman, allegedly was in contact with Islamic radicals and twice tried to travel to Syria last year, investigators said. They are trying to determine if he was part of a coordinated extremist plot or acted on his own.

German security agencies first were warned about the man by foreign intelligence agencies, but the information provided wasn't conclusive enough to act upon, authorities said. </s> A source in Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence service said on Wednesday that Islamists could stage an attack in Germany at any time with the lethal toxin ricin.

A week ago, a 29-year-old Tunisian, named by authorities as Sief Allah H., was arrested in Cologne on suspicion of planning an Islamist-motivated attack and building a “biological weapon” using ricin.

The BfV source said Islamic State militants had experimented with ricin in the past and had also manufactured it. Islamic State, the source added, had offered detailed instructions on how to produce ricin in a handbook. </s> Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is 6,000 times more lethal than cyanide and has no known antidote

A Tunisian man arrested in Germany in possession of the deadly poison ricin and bomb-making material was planning a biological attack, the national police chief said yesterday.

"Very concrete preparations had been made for an act with a ... biological bomb, which is a first for Germany," Holger Muench, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, told public broadcaster ARD. German police commandos on June 12 stormed the Cologne apartment of the 29-year-old Tunisian migrant identified as Sief Allah and discovered "toxic substances" that turned out to be ricin.

Produced by processing castor beans, ricin is 6,000 times more lethal than cyanide and has no known antidote. German news weekly Der Spiegel has reported the man was thought to have been following instructions disseminated by the Islamic State group on how to build a bomb containing ricin.

Prosecutors have charged that he was "strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons", but it remained unclear whether he was actively plotting an attack.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever </s> German police are searching for a Tunisian man whose ID document they found in the truck used to attack a Berlin Christmas market on Monday, German media report.

- A Tunisian man has been identified as the prime suspect for the attack which killed 12 people and injured dozens more.

- Officials have confirmed he is called Anis Amri, is 24 years old and a Tunisian citizen. He could be armed and dangerous.

- Police are reportedly on the point of conducting an operation in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in western Germany in relation to the Berlin attack. It seems that his is a search of a refugee centre where Anis A. once resided.

- The AfD are provoking centrist parties by blaming the attack on Merkel. They have called a silent vigil in front of her office.

6.17pm Tunisian anti-terrorism police were on Wednesday questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market, a security official told AFP.

"A unit of the anti-terrorism brigade has questioned the suspect's family," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Tunisian security official said Amri's parents were being questioned. Amri has four sisters and a brother, the source said, but it was unclear if anyone else was being questioned.

The source said Amri had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

Contacted by AFP, Tunisia's interior and foreign ministries refused to comment on the case.

5.57pm Federal investigators (BKA) have now made the hunt for the suspect public. He is 24-year-old Anis Amri, a Tunisian citizen. They warn that he could be armed and dangerous. They are offering €100,000 for information that leads to his arrest.

He is described as being 178cm tall, with brown eyes and black hair. He weighs around 75kg.

4.30pm To summarize the events of the day so far and what they mean:

If various news reports about the suspect turn out to be true, the fact that this attack happened is not only a tragedy for the victims and their families, it could also turn into a political scandal.

Tagesspiegel and SZ have reported that the suspect should have been deported from the country months ago. It seems that he applied for asylum under different names and managed to get hold of temporary papers under one of his aliases.

The suspect was taken into custody pending deportation and then released a day later, according to SZ.

He had also already been a suspect in an investigation over a terror plot, but apparently fell off the radar after he moved from western Germany to Berlin.

If he turns out to be the driver of the truck - and his ID was found in the cabin - serious questions will inevitably be asked about how such a man was not stopped before committing this horrible crime.

An analysis piece we published yesterday argued that it is hard for the intelligence community to find lone wolves who are quickly radicalized. But there would be far less excuse for failing to prevent an attack by a man already on the state's radar for more than one offence, including a terror related one.

4.28pm France tightens security checks at German border with suspect still on the loose.

The French interior minister sent a memo to all local police authorities asking them “to take all necessary measures to strengthen controls at the Franco-German border, without delay.”

4.21pm Detectives in NRW had already investigated Anis A, on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism, the state interior minister Ralf Jäger has confirmed.

German media have reported that Anis A. is being hunted for truck attack.

Since February Anis A. had lived in Berlin and police in the two states had exchanged information on the man, the last time being in November.

But at some point he seems to have fallen between the cracks of inter-institutional exchange, the SZ reports.

Jäger also said that "it is far from confirmed" that Anis A. was the driver of the truck

4.17pm Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has said police won't be releasing the suspect's name or pictures of him, despite the name of a Tunisian man already circulating widely in the press.

"It is important to us that we have success - therefore we will be searching undercover at first," he said.

Since midnight the man is being searched for across Europe, said de Maiziere.

3.47pm The interior minister in NRW, Ralf Jäger, has confirmed that the suspect was supposed to be deported back to Tunisia. However the case was held up because Tunisian authorities at first refuted that he was a citizen of their country.

"The necessary papers arrived from Tunisia today," SZ reports Jäger saying.

The SZ also reports that the suspect spent a day in detention but was freed again after authorities were not able to ascertain completely his actual identity.

3.06pm Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere confirmed Wednesday that authorities have identified a new suspect in the case.

"There is a new suspect we are searching for - he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant," he told reporters.

He declined to immediately confirm numerous media reports that the suspect was a Tunisian asylum seeker with links to the Islamic extremist scene.

However a conservative lawmaker at the same news conference, Stephan Meyer, said the suspect was in fact from Tunisia and being watched by police.

"We are apparently talking about a potentially dangerous suspect who was known to authorities and belonged to the Salafist-Islamist scene," he told reporters after a meeting of parliament's interior affairs committee.

Meyer, of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said the case underlined his party's drive to see Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria as "safe countries of origin" whose citizens would not normally be granted asylum.

Media reports said asylum office papers believed to belong to the Tunisian man were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people.

Germany this year moved to declare Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, to raise the bar for asylum requests after last year's record influx of around 890,000 people.

But the bill has been stuck in the upper house for months over human rights concerns in those countries.

2.51pm Tagesspiegel is reporting that the Tunisian man whom police are currently pursuing should have been deported long ago and that several attempts to deport him failed.

The newspaper claims that he had an asylum request rejected in the summer of 2015. It also reports that the temporary papers belonging to him which were found in the truck were filed under a different name.

If this proves to be the case it will add fuel to an already tinder-charged debate on deportations and abuse of the asylum system.

In several high profile crimes this year, the suspects should have already left the country. This was the case for the man who carried out a suicide attack at a bar in Ansbach in July.

It was also true of a rape suspect arrested in Hamburg earlier this month. The Moroccan suspect should have been deported from Lower Saxony, where several thousand people with deportation orders are still living in the state.

Questions will also be asked about how a man who had an asylum request rejected could have then received temporary papers under a different alias.

2.32pm According to a poll by broadcaster RTL and polling firm Forsa, 80 percent of Germans feel safe despite the attack.

Ten percent of respondents said they would not attend big public events out of fear of an attack; 46 percent said they'd go but they'd be worried; 43 percent said security fears would not concern them.

A slight majority (51 percent) said current security measures are adequate for protecting the country

2.28pm Berliners have gathered with refugees at the site of the attack in Breitscheidplatz to send out a signal of solidarity. Signs such as "you will not divide us" were held up, while the crowd sang Silent Night and We are the World, reports Die Welt.

2.14pm Federal investigators (BKA) have confirmed a hacker attack on their "leads" website.

On Tuesday between 5pm and 7.30pm the site crashed and members of the public were not able to provide investigators with evidence such as video footage which could help their enquiry, Spiegel reports.

The BKA say it was a DDoS attack, which crashes servers by overloading them.

2.04pm The interior minister of NRW is set to give a press conference at 3.30pm. Police are following a lead in the area with an operation reportedly imminent. The suspect is known to have stayed at a refugee home in the town of Emmerich in the northwest of Germany's most populous state.

12.58pm The Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz is set to reopen on Thursday, only three days after the attack, according to the federation of festival organizers.

All other Christmas markets in the capital opened again on Wednesday after being closed on Tuesday.

Across the country police have heightened security at Christmas markets, including putting concrete blocks in front of the entrances. Markets and Christmas events across Europe have also seen security measures ramped up, including in Italy, France and Norway.

12.31pm The attack has led to hefty infighting within Germany's government, with the Bavarian CSU threatening to split away from Merkel's CDU after next year's elections if its demands are not fulfilled.

The CSU has linked the attack to the government's refugee policy, while the CDU has been very careful about making any connections before charges have been pressed against a specific individual for the attack.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer says his party will pull out of the government after next year's election if there is no deal on an upper limit on refugees in the coalition agreement. This has been a repeated demand of the CSU, despite the fact the government has brought refugee numbers down to a trickle through various measures including a send-back deal with Turkey.

12.26pm The far-right AfD have called for a silent vigil in front of Angela Merkel's office in Berlin. Leading figures in the party including Alexander Gauland and Björn Höcke are set to attend.

Höcke wrote on Facebook: "Enough is enough! Show your faces in Berlin."

The AfD have been accused by opponents of using the deaths in Berlin for political purposes.

Before a suspect was identified, leading figures in the party on Monday had laid the blame for the attack on the door of Merkel's refugee policy.

12.15pm A report in Bild suggests that the Polish man found dead in the passenger seat of the truck may have prevented a higher death toll.

The tabloid claims to have talked to people familiar with the postmortem who say that he was shot after the rampage.

The body reportedly shows the signs of a fight suggesting that the man, who was the driver of the truck before it was taken over by the attacker, tried to grab the steering wheel away from the attacker.

12.02pm The Süddeutsche Zeitung is reporting that the suspect received permission to stay in Germany in April, but that he was classified as "dangerous" by authorities.

He was under observation and had links to Islamist preacher Abu Walaa, but went underground this month, writes SZ. According to this report he has 8 different identities, one of which he used to apply for asylum.

In November police arrested Abu Walaa along with four other men who are considered to be key links to Isis in Germany.

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) information, authorities have long considered Abu Walaa, to be one of the central figures in the German Islamist scene and have described him as "the faceless preacher."

Abu Walaa and his circle have already been linked to a bomb attack on a Sikh temple, which took place earlier in the year. That link has as yet not been proven in court.

11.48am Bild reports that he had several passports, was aged 21-23, known to police for grievous bodily harm. They cite an unnamed source.

According to Die Welt the suspect is 23 years old, used at least four different names, and was known to be dangerous. They also cite unnamed sources. The suspect is thought to be injured.

11.42am Police in North Rhine-Westphalia are preparing "immediate actions" in connection with the Berlin attack, reports DPA.

11.30am The man is reportedly called Anis A. and was born in 1992 in the city of Tataouine.

The identification, a so-called Duldungsbescheinigung - a document giving the man permission to stay in Germany without granting him asylum - was reportedly found under the driver's seat of the truck.

Police have asked federal prosecutors for permission to conduct a nationwide search. Federal investigators are set to give a press conference at 1pm.

On Monday evening a man drove a large truck into a Christmas market in west Berlin killing at least 12 people and injuring almost 50 others. The attacker escaped the scene before police could catch him.

Isis have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the perpetrator followed their call for adherents to attack the countries which are fighting against them in the Middle East.

Isis have not provided evidence they were directly involved in the attack.
German authorities arrest a Tunisian man accused of building a ricin bomb.