To arrestert for terrorplaner i Berlin

Tysk politi arres­terte to menn fra Midt­østen tors­dag, mis­tenkt for å plan­legge ter­ror. De skal ha kjøpt kje­mi­ka­lier. Det var fir­maet de kjøpte fra som tip­set politiet.

A 24-year-old Ger­man citizen of Lebanese descent and a 28-year-old from the Gaza Strip were appre­hen­ded following an investi­ga­tion by police and state prose­cutors that has been under­way for some time, a police spo­kes­man said.
Offi­ci­als with the Pub­lic Prosecutor’s Office said the men are alleged to have been prepa­ring a “serious act of vio­lent sub­ver­sion.” They are belie­ved to have amassed che­mical sub­stan­ces that could have been used in the pre­pa­ra­tion of a bomb, he said. Aut­hori­ties declined to reveal furt­her details about the poten­tial explosive.

While a police spo­kes­man con­fir­med to SPIEGEL ONLINE that the two men had acqui­red che­micals, he said they had not begun buil­ding a bomb. They pre­sented no imme­diate dan­ger, he said. Investi­ga­tors also believe the sus­pects are iso­la­ted indi­vi­duals belie­ved to be acting alone and with no known links to mili­tant groups or extre­mists abroad, he added.

Poli­tiet gjen­nom­søkte også et islamsk sen­ter i Wed­ding som men­nene hadde frekventert.

De kjøpte store meng­der avkjø­lings­po­ser. De inn­e­hol­der en gele som kan bli eks­plo­siv hvis den mik­ses med bestemte kjemikalier.

The com­pa­nies from which the men bought che­micals set the investi­ga­tion in motion when they aler­ted offi­ci­als about sus­pi­cious quantities in their orders, the Ber­li­ner Mor­gen­post news­pa­per reported. Coo­ling ele­ments and acids used in the agri­cul­ture industry were among the che­micals, the paper reported.

Over the course of seve­ral mon­ths, the main sus­pect allegedly orde­red large quantities of gel ice packs, daily Der Tage­sspie­gel reported. Com­bined with a cer­tain acid, the gel inside can be highly explo­sive, the paper said.

Two Ter­ror Sus­pects Arrested in Berlin