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Arrests made following terror threat on Essen shopping center
 [DW] Two men have been jugged in connection with a terror threat in the western city of Essen. Police sealed off and closed a shopping center after receiving indications of a planned attack from security sources.Dozens of police surrounded the Limbecker Platz shopping mall in Essen on Saturday after receiving what they said was a credible evidence of a terror attack the day before. Security services cited by the German tabloid newspaper "Bild" described the threat as a potential multiple suicide kaboom. As well as the mall, nearby parking garages and an underground rail station were all placed in lockdown while sniffer dogs searched the area. "We received very serious indications from security sources that a possible attack was planned here for today and would be carried out," a front man for Essen police told the Rooters news agency. "That is why we were forced to take these measures." Police later ordered the shopping center, one of the biggest in Germany, to remain closed for the rest of Saturday, adding they now believed they had foiled an attack. On Saturday evening police announced the investigation was ongoing, and thanked people who had responded via social media or by telephone during the security operation. An 'Islamic State' plot? The German Press Agency and "Bild" quoted security sources as saying the plot was believed to be the work of the self-styled "Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... " (IS) militia. The sources said a German man who traveled to Syria to fight alongside the group was the suspected criminal mastermind. He had reportedly been in contact with a number of people in the Essen area to organize the attack, and had also sent them bomb-making instructions via an online chat. An interior ministry front man in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Essen is located, declined to comment on reports about "IS" involvement in the foiled plot. Two arrests made Two men in the nearby town of Oberhausen were tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in connection with the threat. One was questioned after a police search of an apartment in the town. Another was taken in for questioning from a nearby internet cafe. Security sources told the German Press Agency that while the pair had been in contact with the German Death Eater in Syria, they were not being treated as would-be perpetrators. According to its website, the Limbecker Platz shopping center has more than 200 stores and attracts up to 60,000 people.
Thomas de Maiziere told public broadcaster ARD that Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, had received “tips of an attack and passed them on” to local security authorities in Essen. “The case was evaluated several times … and it couldn’t be eliminated that there could have been a concrete attack at this mall. This was prevented,” de Maiziere said. Posted by: trailing wife 2017-03-12 |
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