Anis Amri, the suspect wanted in connection to the Berlin Christmas market attack, has been shot dead by police in Milan, Italy.

Italian interior minister, Marco Minniti, said that the man opened fire on policemen who asked him for ID during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni area in the early hours of Friday.

“One police officer was injured in the shootout but his life is not in danger,” Minniti added.

Monday’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market left 12 dead and 49 injured.

German officials have confirmed Amri’s fingerprints were found inside the truck that was used in Monday evening’s attack.

The attack took place at a Christmas market at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the west of the German capital.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa, the suspect had travelled by train from France to Turin, and then taken another train to Milan.

From the central station he travelled on to Sesto San Giovanni, a working-class area. He was on foot when he was asked to show his documents, Ansa reports.

He pulled a pistol from his backpack and began shooting, reports say.

The officer who returned fire had been in the police for just nine months.

Amri, a Tunisian national aged 24, had served a prison sentence in Italy after being convicted of vandalism, threats and theft in 2011.

He was known to Italian authorities for his violent behaviour while imprisoned.

After his release he was asked to leave the country. He arrived in Germany where he applied for asylum in April of this year.

He was named as a suspect in the Berlin attack by German federal prosecutors, and a reward of up to €100,000 was offered for information leading to his arrest.

A spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry, Tobias Plate, said the ministry was “relieved that this person no longer poses a danger.”

He, however, would not comment on reports in the German media that Amri had been filmed at a mosque in Berlin in the hours after the attack.

Separately, police arrested two people in the German city of Oberhausen on suspicion of planning an attack on a shopping centre.

Interior minister, Minitti praised the two police officers who had apprehended Amri, and said the operation showed how Italy’s security system was working well.

“As soon as this person entered our country, a fugitive wanted across Europe, we immediately identified him and neutralised him,” the minister said.