Berlin attack suspect shot dead by police in Milan

A body is covered in a thermical blanket as Italian police cordon off an area after a shootout between police and a man in Milan's Sesto San Giovanni neighborhood. (AP Photo/Daniele Bennati)

Amri produced a gun when approached by police during a routine patrol in the northern Italian city early on Friday, local media said.

One officer was injured in an exchange of gunfire and the suspect, who shouted Alluha Akba, was shot dead, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

One report said the officer who fired the shot was a trainee who had only been in the job a few months.

Tunisian national Anis Amri who has been shot dead in MIlan(Police via AP)

There was no official confirmation that the dead man was Amri, the Tunisian wanted for driving a truck into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing 12 people and injuring 48.

But the Italian Interior Ministry was expected to hold a press conference on Friday in Rome.

Relatives Amri urged him to turn himself in to police on Thursday.

Amri, who turned 24 on Thursday, is understood to have left Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and spent time in Italy before entering Germany last year.

His asylum claim was rejected and authorities identified him as a threat before the Berlin outrage.

His brother Abdelkader Amri said: “I ask him to turn himself in to the police. If it is proved that he is involved, we dissociate ourselves from it.”

German authorities issued a wanted notice for Amri on Wednesday and offered a reward of up to 100,000 euro (£84,000) for information leading to his arrest.

More to follow.