An Algerian and a Nigerian suspected of planning to carry out a terrorist attack have been arrested in the German city of Goettingen, officials said on Thursday.
More than 450 officers took part in the mass raids targeting 12 locations, mostly in the central city of Goettingen in Lower Saxony state, they said.
Police investigating the fundamentalist Islamist community had acted on information pointing to “a possibly imminent terrorist attack”, said the city’s police chief Uwe Luehrig.
They detained the two men, a 27-year-old Algerian and a Nigerian, 23, who had both lived for some time in the city with their families in a police operation that took place during the night.
The Goettingen police and the Interior Ministry of the state of Lower Saxony did not confirm whether any evidence was confiscated as part of the raids.
The men have been classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as “a danger to others”, that is people who are prepared to commit acts of terrorism at any time.
Police Chief Uwe Luehrig said that evidence gathered in the past few days about the men’s terrorist plot had forced the authorities into action.
NAN
