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Five men have been arrested in Germany over an alleged conspiracy to hit people with a car at a Christmas market.
Three Moroccans, an Egyptian and a Syrian were detained on Friday over plans to target a market in the southern state of Bavaria. Authorities said they suspected an “Islamic motive.”
The 56-year-old Egyptian allegedly “called for a vehicle attack… aimed at causing as many casualties as possible,” prosecutors said. Moroccans allegedly agreed to carry out the attack.
German officials have been on high alert following attacks on Christmas markets in Magdeburg and other places last December. causing six deaths.
Authorities did not say when the planned attack would take place or which market was targeted, but said they believed it targeted a market in the Dingolfing-Landau area northeast of Munich.
German newspaper Bild reported that the Egyptian man was the imam of a mosque in the area.
Police said three Moroccan men – aged 30, 28 and 22 – were arrested on suspicion of consenting to the murder, while the 37-year-old Syrian man was accused of encouraging the suspect “to make a criminal decision”.
Five suspects appeared in court on Saturday and remain in custody.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild newspaper that “good cooperation between our security services” helps prevent “potential Islamist attacks.”
Christmas markets are popular festive attractions across Germany, often attracting large crowds and large numbers of tourists.
Security at events has been tightened in recent years since an attack in Berlin in 2016, when a man drove a truck into a market crowd, killing 12 people.
