Authorities in the German state of Lower Saxony announce Thursday the arrest of a 26-year-old for allegedly planning a terrorist attack. State prosecutors said that bomb-making materials were found in his apartment in the town of Northeim in the state of Lower Saxony.
The prosecutor’s office in Celle and the police in Göttingen announced the arrest of the German-born radical Islamist Thursday afternoon and said that they had evidence he was plotting to attack police or soldiers Frankfurter Rundschau reports. The man, who is said to have been born in Germany, is part of the Salafist community who preach a radical form of Islam that is also practiced by adherents of groups like the Islamic State.
Earlier, police raided his home and found various chemicals used to make explosives based on acetone peroxide – a highly explosive agent, which is difficult to detect and which was earlier used in a number of terrorist attacks across Europe, including the Brussels attacks in 2016.
Last year, Germany witnessed five major terror attacks, which were carried out by radicalized young people with suspected links to the Daesh terrorist group. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, views Salafists as a “dangerous” group and argues it is the source of radicalization among many young Muslims.
