Tunisian hunted by Germany was seen earlier as terror threat

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a Tunisian man with ties to Islamic extremists who has been identified as a suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack, lawmakers said Wednesday.

A German security official said authorities had considered him a possible terror threat previously and had been trying to deport him after his asylum application was rejected this summer.

The man is being sought in Germany and across Europe's border-free travel zone, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said after briefing Parliament's domestic affairs committee.

Germany's chief federal prosecutor told lawmakers that "this Tunisian is a solid lead, his wallet was found in the cab of the truck, but that it's not clear that he was also the perpetrator," said Burkhard Lischka of the Social Democrats, the junior governing party.

The new suspect apparently arrived in Germany in 2015 and lived in three German regions since February, mostly in Berlin, said Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia state.

The claim of responsibility carried on the IS group's Amaq news agency late Tuesday did not identify the man seen fleeing from the truck, but described him as "a soldier of the Islamic State" who "carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."