Police arrest suspected extremist over bus bombing
● Three letters claiming responsibility found near site
A suspected Islamic extremist has been arrested over the bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus, according to German prosecutors.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said three similar letters claiming responsibility found near the site of the attack before Dortmund’s Champions League match at home to Monaco on Tuesday night made an Islamic extremist motive possible.
It said that investigators had been focusing so far on two suspects from the “Islamic spectrum”, both of whose apartments have been searched. One has been arrested.
Three explosions occurred near the Dortmund team hotel as the squad were travelling to the Westfalenstadion for their quarter-final first leg, which was postponed until last night.
The explosives were hidden behind a hedge and were equipped with metal pins, one of which was found embedded in one of the headrests on the team bus. The blast area, prosecutors said, was more than 100 metres.
A statement from the Prosecutor’s Office said: “The terrorist background of the attack is based on the facts of the crime. The federal prosecutor has therefore taken the investigation. The exact motive of the attack is still unclear.
“At the site of the attack, three written claims of responsibility were found. After this an Islamic extremist background seems possible.
“Among other things the letters call for the withdrawal of Tornados from Syria and the closure of the Ramstein Air Base.”
Prosecutors pointed out it was still too early to make a final decision on the motive behind the attack, but did say there were “considerable doubts about the authenticity” of another claim of responsibility, from left-wing extremists.
Dortmund chief executive Hans-joachim Watzke has urged his players to show their club does not bend to “terror and hatred” in an emotional changing-room address.
Mr Watzke said the attack, which left defender Marc Bartra with a broken wrist, had left the team needing to come to terms with the “incomprehensible” very quickly.
And he said that when the team took to the pitch for the rearranged game they would be playing “for everyone - no matter whether Borussia (Monchengladbach), Bayer (Leverkusen) or Schalke supporters”.
Mr Watzke said in a statement on the club website: “The BVB family was always especially strong when it had to cope with difficult situations. This is perhaps the most difficult situation that we have faced in the past decades. I am sure that we will show ourselves as a strong and united BVB like never before.”