German authorities are reportedly searching for 12 people who entered the country illegally as refugees using fake Syrian passports and then disappeared, reports the news agency .

The migrants are believed to have entered Germany using stolen passports from the same source as those used by two of the Paris attackers, Bild newspaper claimed.

The passports are believed to have been looted by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) when it captured the city of Raqqa in 2013.

The report comes a week after two men were arrested at a refugee shelter in Austria on suspicion of links to the Paris attacks. They had reportedly entered Austria using false Syrian passports at the same time as the Paris attackers.

The authorities have since lost track of the 12 migrants – who entered before the Paris attacks - because of serious shortcomings with the process for registering refugees.

bbabo.Net