German state police detained a teenage asylum-seeker on Tuesday on suspicion that he was planning a suicide attack in Berlin, the country’s capital.
Police in the state of Brandenburg said the unidentified asylum seeker, 17, was detained in the village of Gerswalde, about 60 miles northeast of Berlin.
The arrest came after the teenager apparently sent a farewell message to family members and told them that “he had joined the jihad,” or holy war, according to Brandenburg police.
The message was sent to the suspect’s family within the last week and Brandenburg authorities were informed of it late Monday night by two other German states, Brandenburg police spokesman Torsten Herbst told The Associated Press.
Police are investigating but “evidence of the planning of a concrete act has not yet been identified,” said Herbst.
The state Interior Ministry’s office identified the asylum-seeker as Syrian, but investigators are inspecting whether the suspect registered as a Syrian but was from a different country.
The teenager, whose name has not been released, traveled to Germany in 2015 as an unaccompanied minor and registered as an asylum-seeker. He has been residing in a home for minor refugees in Gerswalde since 2016.
