Asylum-seeker, 17, suspected of plotting Berlin suicide attack

GERMAN police have arrested a teenage Syrian asylum-seeker suspected of planning a suicide attack in Berlin.

The 17-year-old was detained in the Uckermark region, north-east of Berlin, Karl-heinz Schröter, the interior minister, announced yesterday.

However, Brandenburg police said they had not yet found evidence that the suspect was planning an attack.

“The Syrian nationality and concrete attack plans could not so far be confirmed. The investigations continue,” police tweeted.

“According to evidence, he joined Jihad and said goodbye to family members,” they added, referring to the term for Islamic holy war.

It has been reported that the teenager entered Germany in 2015.

Memories are still fresh in Germany of the Christmas market attack in Berlin last December when 12 people were killed by failed asylum-seeker, Anis Amri, a Tunisian, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Last week, police arrested four suspected terrorists in dawn raids in Berlin as the German capital geared up for a long weekend of mass gatherings, capped by a joint appearance by Angela Merkel, the chancellor, and Barack Obama, the former US president.

♦ Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said yesterday he was “convinced” that the Syrian government was not behind a chemical attack in the country on April 4 which killed 88 people, including 31 children.

Mr Putin also said that he agreed with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line”.

“According to our information, there is no proof of the use of chemical weapons by [Syrian president Bashar al-] Assad,” he told Le Figaro.

“We are convinced he did not do so,” Mr Putin said, a day after meeting with Mr Macron in Versailles.

Several Western countries, including France, have accused Syria of carrying out the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun.