Cologne Cathedral Terrorist Attack Plot uncovered
A plot to bomb Cologne's Catholic cathedral has been uncovered by police. "The attack was to have been carried out with a car packed with explosives," the local media announced. As a result of the plot, five men were arrested between 26 and 31 December, all of them allegedly linked to Islamic extremists. The Cologne police spokesman said that the police would maintain security at the cathedral.
Furthermore, two potential attacks on Christmas markets have been uncovered in Germany.
A 20-year-old man is in custody on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The Iraqi man arrived in Germany last year. According to police, he was planning to attack visitors to the Christmas market in the German city of Hanover. He is also said to be an Islamist who had pledged to carry out such an attack in support of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia.
On December 3, NRW Interior Minister, Herbert Reul said: "We assume - for months and years, basically - that there is Islamist terror and terrorists in Germany and also in North Rhine-Westphalia." He added that security authorities are constantly keeping an eye on them. "And the moment it becomes dangerous or when it becomes so serious that we have to assume that something could happen, then our priority is to protect our citizens above all else."
Furthermore, on December 5, two teenagers have been arrested in different parts of the country. They are suspected of having planned a terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Leverkusen. According to the public prosecutor's office, they were planning to join an offshoot of the Islamic State (IS).