A seventeen-year-old youth, who has German citizenship, was detained in the town of Elmshorn.
A 17-year-old teenager was detained in northern Germany on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack, the local prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Local media reported that the target of the planned Islamist attack was supposed to be the Christmas market, writes TASR based on a report by the AFP agency.
According to the prosecutor’s office of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, the young man holds “extreme Islamist views”, while he is suspected of “preparation of a serious violent attack” and “conspiracy to commit murder”. The teenager, who has German citizenship, was arrested last Wednesday in the town of Elmshorn. Daily Bild reported that he planned to carry out the attack at the Christmas market, using a truck.
Increased alert
The worst attack of this type in Germany so far occurred on December 19, 2016, at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. At that time, the Islamist rammed a stolen truck into a crowd of people. 12 people died and dozens more were injured. The terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the crime.
Germany belongs to the countries where, since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip, the so-called heightened alert against potential Islamist attacks. The local authorities claim that they have foiled several planned attacks recently.
However, in June, a police officer was killed in the city of Mannheim in southwestern Germany, who was stabbed to death by an Afghan immigrant. In a similar August knife attack in the West German city of Solingen, three people were killed and eight others were injured. At that time, according to media reports, the attacker was a Syrian asylum seeker, while the Islamic State claimed responsibility for his act.
