News / Germany

German police arrest Syrian refugee over possible attack, officials say

Tuesday, 09 August 2016 5:25 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 09 August 2016 6:01 PM ]

The file photo shows German police in Hildesheim, northern Germany. (AFP)

German officials said Tuesday that police arrested a Syrian refugee on August 5 after receiving a tip-off that the man was planning a possible attack.

The interior ministry of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia said in a statement, "Investigations conducted thus far have found no evidence of a concrete threat" from the 24-year-old.

A spokesman for the interior ministry of the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said the suspect was arrested in the town of Mutterstadt.

The Bild newspaper quoted the official as saying in its online edition that the man is suspected of being a "high-ranking representative of the militant terror group IS (Daesh)."

The tip-off about the man from a prison in North Rhine-Westphalia led to the arrest by authorities during a routine police stop, said the report.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed attacks on the German soil last month. The Takfiri group, which is more feared in countries such as France and Belgium after a series of deadly attacks, says it will continue to target civilians and security forces in Germany over the country’s contribution to the so-called multi-national task force fighting against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

On July 24, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee killed himself and injured 15 people outside a café in the city of Ansbach in Bavaria in southern Germany.

Daesh claimed the attack, saying the Syrian man was a recruit. The Takfiri group also claimed an attack on July 18 on four passengers on a regional train in Bavaria. The teenage attacker, who was registered as an Afghan asylum seeker but believed to be a Pakistani national, wounded four using an ax and a knife.

Germany was further rattled on July 22, when a teenager opened fire at people shopping at a mall in the city of Munich in the south, killing nine and injuring more than 35 others. Officials ruled out that the case was a terrorism issue.

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