BERLIN, Nov 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German authorities said they had arrested a 22-year-old Syrian man in Berlin suspected of preparing a “jihadist” attack, without giving details of the alleged plot.
The suspect, arrested on Saturday in the capital’s southern Neukoelln district, was being kept in a detention centre and was to be brought before an investigating judge later Sunday.
He was alleged to have plotted “a jihadist-motivated attack”, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Berlin said.
He was being held on suspicion of preparing an act of a serious nature that would put the country in danger, the spokesman said.
The newspaper Bild reported that a search by special police units of three Berlin residential addresses linked to the suspect turned up items that could be used to build explosives.
The daily said the alleged plot was thought to be an attack in Berlin, but that no other details had yet emerged.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a statement that the arrest of the Syrian showed that “the terrorist threat in Germany, though often abstract, remains heightened”.
He said the Syrian had been in Germany since 2023 and that his activities “suggesting preparations for an attack, were detected in time”.
Germany in recent months has seen several knife attacks, as well as attacks with jihadist and far-right motives that have thrown a focus on security measures.
Berlin remains under vigilant watch, especially since a murderous 2016 jihadist attack at a Christmas market, when a truck mowed down a crowd, killing 12 people. — NNN-AGENCIES
