Attack suspect killed

The Tunisian man suspected in a deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin was killed early Friday in a shootout with police in Milan during a routine patrol, ending a Europe-wide manhunt.

Italian police said Anis Amri travelled from Germany through France and into Italy after the attack, at least some of it by train. French officials refused to comment on his passage through France, despite increased surveillance on its trains after both recent French attacks and the Berlin massacre.

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni praised the two young police officers for their courage in taking down Amri during a routine check of ID papers. But he also called for greater cross-border police co-operation, suggesting dismay that Amri was able to easily move through Europe's open borders despite being Europe's No. 1 fugitive.

Amri was identified with the help of fingerprints supplied by Germany.

"The person killed, without a shadow of a doubt, is Anis Amri, the suspect of the Berlin terrorist attack," said Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack outside Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in which a truck plowed into a crowd of shoppers, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. It also claimed the Milan shooting.

Milan, Rome and other cities have been on heightened alert since the attack, with increased surveillance and police patrols. Italian officials stressed that the young officers who stopped Amri didn't suspect he was the Berlin attacker, but rather grew suspicious because he was a North African man, alone outside a deserted train station at 3 a.m.

Amri, 24, who had spent time in prison in Italy, was stopped by two officers during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni neighbourhood of Milan early Friday. He pulled a gun from his backpack after being asked to show his identification and was killed in an ensuing shootout.

One of the officers, Christian Movio, 35, was shot in the right shoulder and underwent surgery for a superficial wound and was in good condition. Movio's 29-year-old partner, Luca Scata, fatally shot Amri in the chest.

Amri's death doesn't reduce the terrorist threat to Germany, the country's top security official said.

The threat "remains high" and security won't be scaled down, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

Amri passed through France before arriving by train at Milan's central station where video surveillance showed him at around 1 a.m. Friday, Milan police chief Antonio de Iesu said. A train ticket indicates that he travelled from Chambery, France through Turin and into Milan, an Italian anti-terrorism official said.

A Milan anti-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the investigation, said Amri made his way to the piazza outside the Sesto San Giovanni train station in a suburb of Milan.

Two police officers became suspicious because it was 3 a.m., the station was closed and Amri was alone. He had no ID, no phone and only a pocket knife on him, as well as the loaded 22-calibre pistol.