New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on Cologne Cathedral foiled by German police
German police have arrested three people suspected of planning a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on Cologne Cathedral, which was reportedly to be carried out in a car loaded with explosives.
Officers had first been informed of an attack planned for Christmas Eve and patrolled the cathedral with machine guns until New Year’s Eve, when they intercepted the group.
The detainees, who are all Tajik, had planned to use a car as their means of attack but “in which way is not known”, said Cologne police.
Officers had deployed sniffer dogs to search the underground parking of the cathedral for explosives but did not discover anything suspicious.
The suspects were detained in the cities of Duisburg, Herne and Dueren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and their apartments in these areas were also searched.
Bild Daily reported in December that the group had allegedly wanted to carry out attacks for Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an Isis offshoot in Afghanistan.
The group had become involved with an extremist network in Germany, Austria and Spain, according to German prosecutors and the country’s Federal Intelligence Service.
The three suspects are believed to be linked to another Tajik national, aged 30, who was arrested on Christmas Eve, according to Cologne police.
The 30-year-old was also detained by German police on the same day that Austria announced the arrests of another three suspects in Vienna.
Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert at King’s College London, said that the network is “probably the only Isis offshoot that would currently be capable of carrying out a large, coordinated attack in the West”.
Security measures have been increased in Cologne with about 1,000 police officers deployed on Sunday.
Herbert Reul, the German state interior minister, said: “Terrorists and their networks are currently very active and are trying to regroup. Police are out and about with all their strength and capabilities.”
However, Mr Reul told residents that they were safe to go ahead with new year plans, as revellers began celebrating.
Mr Reul added: “Islamist terror is still a threat on German streets. However, it would be wrong to panic. I say: Celebrate. Behave yourselves. Take care – and enjoy the transition into the new year.”
Germany has been on high alert in recent weeks over possible Islamist attacks, with the country’s domestic intelligence chief warning in late November that the Israel-Hamas war had increased the risk of such assaults.
Germany issued a ban on Hamas activities and organisations linked to the group in the wake of the militants’ attack on Israel that killed about 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The deadliest attack by Islamist extremists in Germany was carried out by an Isis supporter who rammed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12 people.
