Extremism: Islamist in custody for possible attack planning

According to dpa information, special police forces have taken an Islamist threat into custody in Duisburg. According to information from the Essen police on Tuesday evening, there had previously been “indications of a possible attack scenario”. According to dpa information, the man is said to have found out how to drive a truck into a meeting. According to the “Bild” newspaper and “Spiegel”, the possible attack plans were directed against a pro-Israel demonstration. According to dpa information, there were no indications of an imminent attack. The joint federal and state counterterrorism center was also involved in the police operation.

According to “Spiegel”, the man is said to be a convicted Islamist. The tip is said to have come from a foreign intelligence service. The authorities feared that the man could use a truck to which he should have easy access, according to “Spiegel”.

According to the same information from “Spiegel” and “Bild”, the perpetrator is a man who was sentenced to five years in prison by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court in 2017 for membership in the terrorist group “Islamic State”.

A spokeswoman for the Essen police neither wanted to confirm nor deny the reports. “We cannot yet confirm that this is the person we had in mind,” she said. The identification process is ongoing.

According to the police, the apartment of a man known to the police in Duisburg was searched following information about the possible attack scenario. A man found there was temporarily taken into custody. “Whether this person prepared an attack is the subject of extensive investigations.” The operation continued in the evening.