Footage has emerged showing the moment a lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.

The hijacked truck appears from the left-hand side of the screen as it races towards the crowded Breitscheidplatz square.

Seconds later, panicked shoppers run from the area.

In the attack, people were mowed down and wooden huts selling Christmas gifts and food were flattened.

The dashcam footage was taken by a taxi driver who was waiting for customers outside the market at the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church.

Meanwhile, police have carried out raids across Germany as a Europe-wide manhunt continues for Anis Amri - the main suspect in the massacre which has been claimed by Islamic State.

Amri - a failed asylum seeker who was known to police and monitored covertly for several months this year - is suspected of being behind the wheel during the attack that injured 56 people.

The Tunisian's fingerprints were found on the cab of the lorry, interior minister Thomas de Maiziere confirmed.

Prosecutors have warned the suspect could be armed and have offered a €100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Wanted poster for Anis Amri | Image via @BMJV_Bund on Twitter

Properties raided

Amri's brother, Abdelkader, has urged his sibling to hand himself in.

Following Monday's atrocity, a Muslim association in the Moabit area of Berlin was among the locations raided, according to Berliner Zeitung, which said stun grenades had been used.

Amri was filmed on CCTV at the building after the attack, the RBB website reported.

Armed police were also seen at a Berlin apartment block overnight and two apartments in Dortmund were searched in the early morning.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said authorities carried out searches in various locations in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin.

"Anis Amri is believed to have been at those places previously. Based on a tip-off, a bus in Heilbronn [southwest Germany] was searched. There have been no arrests."

Officials said the 24-year-old had come to their attention in March after a tip-off that he might be planning a robbery to raise money for weapons to use in an attack.

They followed him until September, when it was decided there was not enough evidence.

Amri first entered Germany late last year and authorities had been trying to deport him after rejecting his asylum claim in the summer.

He is thought to have used six different aliases and three different nationalities. German newspaper Der Spiegel criticised authorities who "had (Amri) in their crosshairs and he still managed to vanish".

Rainer Wendt, the head of a union representing German police, said civilians are "rightly outraged and anxious that such a person can walk around here, keep changing his identity."

In a measure to boost public safety and security, concrete barriers that were put up during a Berlin car race in May are being installed again to help protect Christmas markets.