German police search Berlin properties linked to mosque visited by attacker

BERLIN: German police on Tuesday searched more than 20 properties in Berlin linked to an organisation that ran a mosque visited by the Tunisian asylum seeker who killed 12 people in a Christmas market in December.

About 450 officers have been searching several apartments, two companies' premises and six prison cells connected to the organisation called "Fussilet 33 e.V." since 6am local time (0500 GMT), police said in a statement.

Handout pictures released on December 21, 2016 and acquired from the web site of the German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) Federal Crime Office show suspect Anis Amri searched in relation with the Monday's truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. PHOTO: REUTERS

Police said on Twitter that the organisation had now been banned. They have searched 24 properties and searches are ongoing, they said.



Neither police nor the Berlin state's interior ministry were available to comment further when contacted by Reuters.

The federal prosecutor has said that Anis Amri, the Berlin attacker, visited a mosque run by the "Fussilet 33 e.V." organisation on the day of the December attack.