The day: Police breakdown prevented attack in Berlin

In October 2016, the police accidentally prevented an attack on the Berlin Gesundbrunnen Center.

(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)

The accidental prevention of an Islamist terrorist attack involving Anis Amri on the Berlin Gesundbrunnen shopping center in 2016 was related to a breakdown in the police investigation at the time. This emerges from statements by a Berlin criminal police officer in the Amri investigation committee of the Bundestag.

On October 26, 2016, police officers rang an Islamist's Berlin apartment to determine the identity of a second man in the apartment, said the chief commissioner who leads the observation teams. This second man was an Islamist who fled across the balcony and shortly afterwards disappeared from Germany and refrained from the attack in Berlin.

It now turned out that the State Criminal Police Office had long known the man as a friend of the tenant. The observation team on October 26 did not know this and therefore started the bell action, which ultimately prevented the planned attack, said the commissioner, who was in charge of the operation, but was not on site himself. The fact that the two Islamists stored the highly dangerous TATP explosive in the apartment was also unknown to them.