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Berlin (dpa) - The protection of the constitution of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has procured two weapons from sources in the Islamist milieu in recent years.

"It is of course our goal to determine whether the appropriate weapons are really there," said the head of the authority, Reinhard Müller, on Thursday evening in the Bundestag committee of inquiry into the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market.

Therefore, you have made appropriate research.

The only thing that came out of it, according to Müller, was a Czech decorative weapon, a replica of a Kalashnikov.

However, Müller, who was questioned as a witness, later mentioned another weapon, an old shotgun.

This had already been obtained earlier, he said.

According to Müller, the decorative weapon was examined at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Schwerin - but not until November 2019, years after it appeared.

According to the Interior Ministry in Schwerin, the investigation showed that the decorative weapon was not and could not be made fireable.

Müller said he arranged the investigation himself.

According to information from members of the committee, a former employee of Müller's authority had previously given other information as a witness in a secret meeting about the weapons that have meanwhile been stored in the Interior Ministry.

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The NDR had previously reported that a Kalashnikov may have disappeared from the ministry, which is said to have appeared in 2015 in connection with an Islamist attack in Paris.

The broadcaster relied on a catalog of questions from SPD member of parliament Dirk Friedriszik.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior told the German Press Agency when asked that the decorative weapon was being kept in the LKA to this day.

The committee of inquiry has the task of clearing up official errors relating to the terrorist attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz.

The Tunisian Islamist Anis Amri shot and killed a truck driver on December 19, 2016 and killed eleven other people in his vehicle at the Christmas market at the Memorial Church.

Müller was also asked on Thursday why his authority had not forwarded a reference to possible Amris supporters in February 2017 to the investigators.

Interior Ministry opinion