Germany arrests three teenagers on suspicion of ‘terror attack’ plot

Prosecutors say trio believed to have been planning ‘murder, manslaughter’ and ‘act of violence endangering the state’.

Police in Germany have arrested three teenagers on suspicion of planning a terror attack, according to prosecutors.

Two girls aged 15 and 16 and a 15-year-old boy were arrested as they were “strongly suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated terror attack and of having committed to carrying it out”, prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.

The three teenagers were from the Dusseldorf region in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and are believed to have been planning crimes of “murder and manslaughter”, as well as preparing “a serious act of violence endangering the state”, according to the statement.

The state’s Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism sought an arrest warrant for the teenagers over the Easter holiday.

They had formed a chat group and had not set a date or place for the attack, but investigators said they “certainly saw the danger”.

The authorities did not provide further details about the alleged plot nor did they specify how advanced the plans were, citing the suspects’ young age and the continuing investigation.

But the Bild newspaper reported that the trio were allegedly planning to carry out attacks on worshippers in churches and on police stations using knives and Molotov cocktails in following the ideology of the ISIL (ISIS) group.

The teenagers were also weighing whether to obtain firearms, the mass circulation daily reported.

Germany has been on high alert for attacks since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, as it has been increasingly scrutinised for its political and military backing of Israel in the conflict that has killed more than 33,500 Palestinians.

German authorities arrested three people in January over an alleged plot to attack the cathedral in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Last month, police detained two Afghan citizens linked to ISIL for allegedly planning to attack police near the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Quran.

Police in northern Germany said on Thursday they were offering a 5,000-euro ($5,330) reward for providing information concerning an arson attack on a synagogue in the city of Oldenburg last week.

Anonymous online supporters and outlets of ISIL have also been threatening to attack football stadiums across Europe, including in Germany. An ISIL-linked outlet posted a picture of a red target marker on groups of people outside Munich’s Allianz Arena ahead of a major match in late March.

European Champions League matches this week were also threatened by the group, but the tournament eventually proceeded as planned in London, Paris and Madrid, although under ramped up security measures.