After suspected explosives in IC
Planned 17-year-old Islamist attack?
1/31/2022 1:03 p.m
At the weekend, the police searched an Intercity train in Wunstorf, Lower Saxony, for explosives. A youth is arrested. Now it is known that the 17-year-old is suspected of having prepared an Islamist attack.
A youth from the Cologne area who was arrested in Hanover is suspected of having prepared an Islamist attack. The public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf said he was accused of having undergone appropriate training. The 17-year-old is being investigated on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state. He was provisionally arrested on Saturday.
In this context, the federal police had searched a train in Wunstorf near Hanover with sniffer dogs for explosives on suspicion of explosives. The suspicion was not confirmed, but around 100 passengers had to wait a good hour at the station on Saturday evening.
There was no danger for the train and the travelers, said the spokesman for the central office for the prosecution of terrorism in North Rhine-Westphalia on Monday. This is based at the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office and leads the investigations. The 17-year-old could remain in police custody until Friday due to a court order to avert danger, it said. Only then must a decision be made on the issue of an arrest warrant.
Bag with objects turned off
The investigations started after information from the personal environment of the accused. He was tracked down by federal police officers at Hanover’s main train station around 5 p.m. on Saturday and taken to the police station. A defuser examined the contents of his bag but found nothing dangerous.
According to the federal police, the 17-year-old was on the train before the control at the main station, which was later searched. He behaved conspicuously and left a bag with objects at the travel center. The area was then cordoned off, but there was only clothing in the bag. The Hanover police had stated that the operations were preceded by a tip from the police in Cologne. The local officials were informed about the state criminal investigation offices in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
The Cologne state security has set up an investigation group. The 17-year-old with German and Turkish citizenship now faces up to five years in prison if the allegations are confirmed. The presumption of innocence still applies to him, the investigating authority emphasized. No further information could currently be given with a view to protecting the investigations and the age of the underage accused.