BERLIN — (CNN) Anis Amri is likely the most wanted man in Europe right now.
Though several people could have been involved in Monday’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and 48 injured, Amri is the only suspect who’s been publicly identified.
The 24-year-old Tunisia native is considered violent and believed to be armed.
Here’s what we know about him.
Italy
Amri is one of four children, according to a man who claimed to be Amri’s father.
The man said in an interview on Tunisian radio that Amri left Tunisia for Italy about seven years ago after dropping out of school.
While in Italy, he served four years in prison after he was involved in an arson attack on a school, his father said. Amri left for Germany more than a year ago, he added.
The elder Amri said he was not in touch with his son, though the younger Amri maintained sporadic contact with his siblings.
A spokesman for the Italian state police, Mario Viola, told CNN that Amri’s jail term for damaging state property, assault, and arson at the Lampedusa Refugee Center began in late 2011. He was released in May 2015.
Amri had entered Italy in February 2011 without any ID and claimed to be a 17-year-old minor, according to the spokesman. Italian authorities ordered his deportation but the Tunisian authorities wouldn’t accept the request on the grounds of a lack of proper documentation, Viola said.
At that point, Italian authorities told Amri to leave the country and officials lost track of him, according to Viola. Amri was “not suspected” of terrorism at the time and was considered a “petty criminal,” Viola said. The Tunisian had entered Italy at the same time as many thousands of others amid the turmoil of the Arab Spring, Viola said.
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Germany
Amri was believed to have entered Germany in July 2015 and had traveled between Berlin and other cities — but was mostly in Berlin since February, said Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Amri requested asylum in Germany but was denied, according to Jaeger.
Deportation proceedings were started but were not completed because Amri’s identity could not be definitively established, according Stephan Mayer, a spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union parliamentary group.
While in Germany, authorities had their eye on Amri — he was believed to be in touch with radical Islamists, including a recruitment network for ISIS operating in Germany, German security officials told CNN.
The main figure in the network, Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah — a 32-year-old Iraqi national also known as Abu Walaa — and four others were arrested and charged with terrorism offenses in November.
Jaeger said he could not confirm a link to Abu Walaa.
Amri — who is believed to have gone by six different aliases, according to authorities — also made it on the radar of German police because he was looking for a gun, one German security official said.
In August, he was arrested with forged documents in the southern German town of Friedrichshafen, on his way to Italy, the security official said.
But a judge later ordered his release.
The hunt
Inside the truck that plowed through the Christmas market, authorities found a Polish man shot dead and a set of identity papers belonging to Amri.
The slain driver may have been involved in a struggle with the suspect inside the truck’s cabin before he was shot, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said. The papers could have been dropped during some sort of altercation.
Authorities publicly identified Amri on Wednesday, releasing pictures of him and offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros (about $104,000) for information on his whereabouts.
It’s believed he stayed in North Rhine-Westphalia, a security official told CNN, and are now conducting raids in the area.
ISIS claimed it inspired the attack. The terror group’s affiliated Amaq News Agency described the perpetrator as a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had acted in response to calls for attacks in the West.
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