Germany arrests three teenagers on suspicion of attack plot | News

Prosecutors say the trio allegedly planned ‘murder, manslaughter’ and ‘an act of violence that endangered the State’.

Police in Germany have arrested three teenagers on suspicion of planning an attack, according to prosecutors.

Two girls aged 15 and 16 and a 15-year-old boy were arrested because they were “strongly suspected of planning an Islamic-motivated terrorist attack and committing themselves to carry it out,” prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.

The three teenagers were from the Dusseldorf region, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and allegedly planned crimes of “murder and manslaughter”, as well as preparing “a serious act of violence that endangers the State”, according to the newspaper. declaration.

The state’s Terrorism Prosecution Center requested an arrest warrant for the teens over the Easter holiday.

They formed a chat group and did not set a date or location for the attack, but investigators said they “certainly saw the danger.”

Authorities did not provide further details about the alleged conspiracy or specify how advanced the plans were, citing the young age of the suspects and the ongoing investigation.

But Bild newspaper reported that the trio were allegedly planning to carry out attacks against worshipers in churches and police stations using knives and Molotov cocktails, following the ideology of the ISIL group (ISIS).

The teens were also weighing whether to obtain firearms, the widely circulated daily reported.

German authorities arrested three people in January over an alleged plot to attack Cologne cathedral on New Year’s Eve.

Last month, police detained two Afghan citizens linked to ISIL for allegedly planning to attack police near the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Quran.

Police in northern Germany said on Thursday they were offering a reward of 5,000 euros ($5,330) for providing information about an arson attack on a synagogue in the city of Oldenburg last week.

Anonymous online supporters and media outlets of ISIL have also threatened to attack football stadiums across Europe, including in Germany. A media outlet linked to ISIL posted a photo of a red marker on groups of people outside the Allianz Arena in Munich before a key match in late March.

European Champions League games this week were also threatened by the group, but the tournament eventually went ahead as planned in London, Paris and Madrid, albeit under heightened security measures.