Four people arrested for threatening to blow up a synagogue in Germany
Four people have been arrested, including a 16-year-old, for allegedly planning an explosive attack on a synagogue in the western German city of Hagen.
This was announced today by the German security officers, specifying the number of those arrested. German media have previously reported that there are arrests related to the threat of an attack on the synagogue.
The arrests were made on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, and two years after the deadly attack on a synagogue in another German city on that holiday. reports the AP.
"Among one of the four arrested was a teenager living in Hagen," police spokeswoman Tanja Fafefer told the AP.
She declined to comment on German media reports that the teenager was a Syrian citizen. Police said they searched several apartments in Hagen before the arrest. The operations followed last night when a synagogue in Hagen, in the west of the country, was placed under strict surveillance by security forces due to the threat of an attack. According to the media, among those arrested are SPIEGEL and Bild, a 16-year-old Syrian, and there is talk of a suspected explosive attack on a synagogue where dozens of people were supposed to mark Yom Kippur last night.
A foreign intelligence service has reportedly warned German authorities of a possible terrorist attack. According to reports, the young Syrian announced an impending attack on the Internet forum that was being followed. Because of that threat, the Yom Kippur ceremony was canceled.
Police in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the city is located, deployed several heavily armed police officers around the religious building last night, and the streets around the synagogue were also blocked due to a "potentially dangerous situation" related to the Hagen synagogue, according to police.
This comes two years after the attack on a synagogue in Halle, also during the Yom Kippur holiday. The suspected assailant, a right-wing extremist, tried to enter the synagogue to shoot at worshipers, but failed. However, he killed two people on the street and in a restaurant before being arrested.
