2024-05-05 06:25:26
They are said to have planned an attack in North Rhine-Westphalia or Baden-Württemberg. After the arrest of four suspected young people at Easter, new details are now becoming known.
Four young people from North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg who were arrested at Easter are said to have found out about an Islamist bomb attack on the Internet. This emerges from a confidential report from the Düsseldorf Interior Ministry to the state parliament. But they are said to have then concentrated more on an attack with incendiary devices and knives.
When evaluating the minors’ cell phones, instructions for making explosives were found, among other things, which had been downloaded from a forum, a spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of the Interior explained when asked in Düsseldorf. However, no evidence of serious preparations for a bomb attack – such as corresponding components – was found.
Young people in custody
According to earlier information from North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), those arrested were a 15-year-old from Düsseldorf, a 15-year-old from Lippstadt, a 16-year-old from Iserlohn and a 16-year-old from Ostfildern in Baden-Württemberg. Württemberg. According to the terror investigators, they are said to have agreed to commit murder and manslaughter “in conjunction with the preparation of a serious act of violence that would endanger the state.” According to security circles, there was no specific attack plan with a time and place.
As a spokesman for the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office reported to the dpa, the seized objects will be further evaluated. The young people are still in custody. There are currently no significant new findings.
Chat exchange
As can be seen from Reul’s report to the state parliament, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution initially came across the 16-year-old from Iserlohn because she was said to have viewed propaganda material from the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) and wanted to travel to Syria. During a raid on Maundy Thursday, the teenager’s cell phone and a knife were seized, as well as a machete from her brother’s room. Chats with the other suspicious young people were found on the cell phone.
In their chats, the young people discussed a possible attack in Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Iserlohn or Stuttgart that was planned by the end of May. The 16-year-old announced in the chats that she would also bring her brother’s machete to the attack.
In April, Reul had already reported that the security authorities had managed to quickly thwart the teenager’s plans. Only five days passed from the first knowledge to the last arrest. The Internet played a role in the radicalization of the suspects.
Reul had repeatedly spoken of an abstract threat of Islamist terror attacks on German streets, but at the same time warned of panic. The Düsseldorf Ministry of the Interior sees no reason for a new risk assessment that deviates from this.