Schleswig-Holstein: Young people arrested for plotting an attack

Investigators have arrested a 17-year-old in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein, for a planned attack. An arrest warrant was issued against the suspect on November 7th for conspiring to commit a crime, as Flensburg public prosecutor Bernd Winterfeldt said.

The background is “an attack scenario, but not clearly defined”.

The 17-year-old wanted to use a truck for his attack. According to the Flensburg public prosecutor’s office, the young person is being investigated for preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state.

The public prosecutor initially did not want to provide further information, for example about the man’s nationality and how investigators got on his trail. These should take place on Wednesday. The young person is said to have come to the attention of the police once this year.

The fact that the teenager is said to have planned an attack with a truck is reminiscent of the attack on December 19, 2016 on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. At that time, an Islamist terrorist hijacked a truck and drove into a Christmas market at the Memorial Church. A total of 13 people died as a result of the crime, one of them as a result years later. More than 70 people were injured, some of them seriously. The assassin fled to Italy, where he was shot dead by the police.