Berlin Christmas market killer shot dead in Milan
Berlin attack suspect, who was shot dead, had taken high-speed train from France to Italy
MILAN: The Italian policemen who shot dead the suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack were carrying out a routine patrol and had no information that he was in Milan, the city's police chief said yesterday.
The suspect, Tunisian Anis Amri, was shot at around 3am (10am Singapore time) by two officers who spotted him standing near a train station in a Milan suburb.
Italian authorities said Amri coolly pulled out a gun from his backpack and began firing.
Trainee officer Luca Scata, 29, fired the fatal shot. His partner Christian Movio, 36, was hit in the shoulder and was in hospital awaiting surgery.
"We had no intelligence that he could be in Milan," police chief Antonio De Iesu said at a news conference.
CAUTIOUS
"They had no perception that it could be him, otherwise they would have been much more cautious."
Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the officers were heroes. "Italy can be really proud of these two officers." he said.
"We remain on maximum alert, we will not underestimate the threat but what happened overnight shows citizens that the state is there for them."
Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in a press conference that Amri was identified by his fingerprints which Italy had on file as a result of him having been in prison in Sicily between 2011 and 2015.
German prosecutors said they were investigating if Amri had accomplices.
Federal prosecutor Peter Frank told reporters that there were many open questions.
"It is very important for us to determine whether there was a network of accomplices... in the preparation or the execution of the attack, or the flight of the suspect," he said.
In a separate development, a source told Reuters that a rail ticket found on Amri's body indicated he had travelled by high-speed train from France to the northern Italian city of Turin. Amri then caught a regional train to the Milan suburbs.
This has added fuel to eurosceptics' argument that open borders under the Schengen pact should be relooked. - WIRE SERVICES
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