German prosecutor denies report of arrests in Berlin attack case

A spokesman for the German chief federal prosecutor on Thursday denied a media report saying that there had been four arrests of people who had contact with the Tunisian suspect Anis Amri in the Berlin Christmas market attack.

"No, that's not the case," the spokesman said when asked about the report. "We do not know of any arrest," he added.

German police commandos raided two apartments in Berlin's neighbourhood of Kreuzberg on Wednesday but did not find the man suspected of involvement in a deadly truck attack, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing investigators.

It said investigators believed that Anis Amri may have been in one of the two apartments. Police forces had to overpower a man at one of the apartments, the paper said. It gave no further information.

The federal prosecutor's office offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the capture of the suspect, whom it identified as 24-year-old Anis Amri. "Beware: He could be violent and armed!" the prosecutor's office said in a statement, in which it described Amri as 1.78 metres (5'8") tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

German police commandos raided two apartments in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg late on Wednesday but did not find Amri, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing investigators. Amri's father and security sources told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique that he had left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and had spent time in prison in Italy