Considerations for an attack on a Christmas market: This sets off alarm bells for the security authorities. Now two young people are said to have exchanged ideas about it – until the police struck.
Düsseldorf/Leverkusen – The Leverkusen district court has issued an arrest warrant against a 15-year-old from the Rheinisch-Bergischen district in North Rhine-Westphalia for planning and preparing an Islamist terrorist attack. The Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office announced this on Wednesday. The teenager was temporarily arrested during a search of his apartment on Tuesday. The Attorney General’s Office did not provide any further information.
As previously reported from security circles, the police in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg had arrested a total of two young people. Accordingly, the 15-year-old main suspect and a 16-year-old are said to have exchanged ideas about the intention to carry out an attack on supposed “infidels”. The 15-year-old from North Rhine-Westphalia mentioned a synagogue and a Christmas market as possible destinations. WDR and “Tagesspiegel” first reported on the suspicion.
The seriousness of the plans and the question of whether the 15-year-old simply wanted to make himself important in his communication with other suspected Islamists remained open at first. However, since he recently named a specific date and a public place, the police intervened on Tuesday to be on the safe side, according to security circles.
Report: Both are considered IS sympathizers
According to WDR information, he is said to have announced a terrorist attack in Germany for Friday, December 1st in a video distributed on Telegram. According to the report, he is said to have discussed an attack with incendiary devices or a small truck on a Christmas market or a synagogue in Cologne with the 16-year-old. According to WDR information, both young people are considered sympathizers of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).
Before the two arrests were announced, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced on Wednesday that, against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict, the risk of possible terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli people and institutions as well as against “the West” had recently increased significantly. In Duisburg, for example, an Islamist threat was arrested at the end of October following indications of a possible attack scenario.
The fact that the two are said to have had a Christmas market in mind is reminiscent of the attack on December 19, 2016 on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. At that time, an Islamist terrorist drove into the Christmas market in a hijacked truck. A total of 13 people died as a result of the crime, one of them as a result years later. dpa
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