Police probe terror in Germany; soccer team loses 3-2 after attack

DORTMUND, Germany — German authorities arrested a suspected Islamic extremist Wednesday in their investigation into a bomb attack on a top German soccer team, while the team — missing a defender wounded in the blasts — lost 3-2 to Monaco in a hastily rescheduled Champions League match.

Amid heightened security, the defeat for Borussia Dortmund in Europe’s top club competition came less than 24 hours after three explosions shattered a window of the team’s bus and rattled nerves across the gritty city in western Germany.

Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said after the loss that he felt European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, had not taken the attack seriously enough as it swiftly rescheduled the match.

“We weren’t asked at all at any time,” Tuchel said. “Basically, we had the feeling that we were being treated as if a beer can had hit our bus, and half an hour later the decision was there that [it would be] tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. … That gives you a feeling of powerlessness.”

Armed police officers in body armor patrolled the streets around Dortmund’s stadium Wednesday night as locals and visiting fans mingled in a subdued atmosphere.

Supporters were banned from bringing backpacks to the match and some were frisked — with security officials even checking under their hats. During the match, small knots of armed police guarded access to the stands.

Earlier in the day, Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for German federal prosecutors, said investigators are focusing on two suspected Islamic extremists in the bus attack and searched their homes, arresting one of them. But authorities said other motives are possible.

Investigators are still trying to determine how the metal-packed devices were detonated and what explosive substance was used.

They also found three copies of a note at the scene of the blasts, which demanded the withdrawal of German Tornado reconnaissance jets that are assisting the fight against the Islamic State group and the closure of the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Koehler said.

But the region’s top security official raised the possibility the note could be “an attempt to lay a false trail.”

Dortmund is one of Germany’s most popular soccer teams and a regular contender for the Bundesliga title, which it last won in 2012. It is in fourth place with six games left to play this season, 18 points behind leader Bayern Munich, Germany’s dominant club of recent years.