Berlin attack suspect shot dead by police, Italian Interior minister confirms

 The main suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack has been killed in a shootout with police in Milan, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The shootout took place at 3am in the Sesto San Giovanni neighbourhood during a routine police check.

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The Italian Interior minister Marco Minniti is now holding a press conference regarding the incident.

ANSA said the man pulled a gun from his backpack after being asked to show his identity papers, and was killed in the ensuing shootout.

A police officer was injured.

ANSA said various sources in Milan and Rome confirmed that the dead man was Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin truck attack on Monday that killed 12 people.

A police source has said the fingerprints have identified the man killed in Milan.

In addition to the 12 killed, 56 were injured in



Monday's attack, which was claimed by the so-called ‘Islamic State’ group (IS).

German authorities issued a Europe-wide wanted notice for Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian, on Wednesday. They offered a reward of €100,000 for information leading to Amri's arrest, but warned he could be "violent and armed".

Authorities said Amri used at least six different names and three nationalities in his travels around Europe.

He left Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and initially spent time in Italy.

He was repeatedly transferred among Sicilian prisons for bad conduct, with prison records saying he bullied inmates and tried to spark insurrections.

He served three and a half years for setting a fire at a refugee center and making threats, among other things - but Italian authorities apparently detected no signs that he was becoming radicalized.