Berlin Terror Attack Manhunt Live Updates: Is Tunisian The Truck Driver From Christmas Market Massacre?

UPDATED: 3:59 p.m. EST —German law enforcement officers stormed two apartments in the Kreusberg neighborhood of Berlin on Wednesday while looking for the main suspect in a deadly truck driving attack at a Christmas market, Reuters reported Wednesday.

German police were searching for Anis Amri, a Tunisian asylum-seeker. However, he was not hiding in either apartments. Police were forced to physically subdue a man in order to gain entry into one of the apartments.

UPDATED: 3:24 p.m. EST — The main suspect in this week's deadly truck terror attack in Berlin was accused of theft in his native Tunisia during the chaos that followed a revolution there, the suspect's former neighbor told Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio on Wednesday.

The unidentified neighbor described events that occurred before Anis Amri left North Africa for Italy and subsequently Germany. Amri was a "delinquent," the neighbor said in part.

Despite Amri's mother's many efforts to persuade her son to move back to his home country, Amri repeatedly refused to go back.

UPDATED: 2:52 p.m. EST — The main suspect in this week's Christmas market truck attack in Berlin has reportedly been convicted of various crimes in Italy and his home country of Tunisia, Tunisia's Mosaique FM radio reported Wednesday.

Anis Amri left the North African country seven years ago and was incarcerated in an Italian jail for four years for setting fire to a school, the radio station said citing information it had received from Amri's father.

After his sentence in Italy, Amri moved to Germany about a year ago, ABC News reported Wednesday. His father said he hadn't been in contact with Amri recently, but his other sons had.

Amri was also convicted in Tunisia over using violence during an aggravated theft, the Tunisian radio station reported citing intelligence it received from national security officials. Amri was sentenced to five years in jail for that crime.

UPDATED: 2:08 p.m. EST — German police said they had been secretly monitoring the Tunisian suspect in Monday's Christmas Market attack in Berlin, for multiple months this year.

Local law enforcement officials started investigating Anis Amri on March 14 after receiving a warning from German security agencies that he might be potential threat, Berlin prosecutors told the Associated Press on Wednesday. They were told he might have been planning a break-in in order to help fund buying atomic weapons to use in an attack.

Amri had been dealing drugs at a park in Berlin and he was involved in a bar fight but, the investigation revealed. After police found no evidence of a credible threat, surveillance was discontinued in September.

UPDATED: 1:01 p.m. EST —Law enforcement authorities in Germany are offering a reward of up to $105,000 for the arrest of Anis Amri, the Tunisian asylum seeker who has become the police's primary suspect in Monday's Christmas market truck attack in Berlin.

German authorities have alerted the public that the 24-year-old suspect's height and weight was of average size and that he had black hair and brown eyes. Federal prosecutors urged anyone who might have information about Amri or his whereabouts to notify the police.

UPDATED: 11:14 a.m. EST —The German police have issued a wanted notice for the main suspect in a deadly Christmas Market truck attack in Berlin on Monday, according to ABC News. The notice, a European arrest warrant from Germany, warned that the 24-year-old Tunisian suspect known as "Anil A," among other aliases, was considered to be armed and dangerous. It also said he has used six different aliases and three different nationalities, citing information listed on the temporary-stay permit that was found in the truck used in the attack.

The suspect had previously been denied asylum in Germany but still secured a residency permit.

UPDATED: 10:14 a.m. EST — The latest suspect in an apparent terror attack in Berlin was on the radar of German intelligence officials before Monday's deadly truck-driving rampage into a crowd of people, the Associated Press reported.

The subject of an ongoing manhunt is a Tunisian national who "security agencies exchanged information about ... in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November." It was not immediately clear when the suspect, who officials believe is 24 years old, first came to the attention of German intelligence. The suspect had unsuccessfully applied for asylum in Germany and instead was granted a permit for residency.

Original story:

German police intensified their manhunt Wednesday for a Tunisian man in connection to the Christmas Market attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured.

Twenty four-year-old “Anis A,” a Tunisian asylum-seeker, became the main suspect of Monday's suspected terror attack after police found his identification documents in the truck used to drive into the crowd of holiday revelers, according to USA Today Wednesday.

Anis A, who was born in the Tunisian city of Tataouine in 1992, had extensive ties to Islamist extremist. Tataouine is widely known as a hot bed for jihadi fighters, Fox News reported Wednesday. He was a follower of Abu Walaa, an Iraqi citizen and Islamist preacher who was arrested in November by German officials for allegedly recruiting ISIS fighters. Walaa is alleged to be the head of the Islamic State faction in Germany.

Anis A goes by eight different aliases, according to his multiple identity documents that list him under different names and different birth dates. Anis A was previously known by the German police after being arrested in August in connection to a case involving physical assault, but was never charged because he abruptly disappeared earlier this month, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.

“We have a strong lead at the moment and our officers are out on the street,” a senior German law enforcement official told the Washington Post Wednesday.

Anis A was granted “toleration” status from the German government in April 2015, which meant he was not granted full asylum but was able to live in Germany legally.

A manhunt was underway in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where Anis A had been issued temporary asylum from the government, according to the temporary-stay permit that was also found in the truck.

Police said Anis A may have suffered injuries during the attack. Law enforcement was subsequently scouring every hospital in Berlin in case he might be hiding among the injured. One theory that has emerged from German investigators is that Anis A was wounded during a physical altercation he had with the original driver of the truck as it was being driven into the busy town square.

German police found Lukasz Urban, a Polish citizen Lukasz Urban, dead in the passenger seat with gunshot and stab wounds after the attack suggesting that he may have tried to grab the steering wheel in an attempt to prevent the attack from happening. Urban was delivering a cargo of steel to Berlin when he was taken hostage by the attacker, Jörg Radek deputy chairman of the German Trade Union of the Police said.

The Islamic State claimed on Tuesday that one of its militants carried out for the attack, but German police said it had not found evidence directly linking the terrorist act to ISIS.

Prosecutor Peter Frank said the manner in which the terrorist act transpired suggested a connection to Islamist extremism because it targeted civilians. The incident was similar to previous attacks claimed by ISIS in July when a truck rammed into pedestrians in Nice, France, during a Bastille Day celebration. That attack killed 84 people on July 18.

Heiko Maas, Germany's justice minister, told local reporters that the investigation had be turned over to federal prosecutors who handle “terrorism” cases.

German police on Tuesday released the previous sole suspect in the attack, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker named Naved B, when prosecutors could not find sufficient evidence linking him to the killings. Officials had detained him in close proximity to the attack but he adamantly denied any involvement.

As of Tuesday night, German police said they had received more than 500 tips about the attack.