How migrants tied up Syrian terror plot fugitive and ran for police

THREE migrants were praised as heroes last night after they captured and tied up a fellow Syrian suspected of plotting a massive bomb attack in Germany.

Police had launched a Europewide manhunt for Jaber Albakr, 22, after finding more than a kilogram of explosives at his flat.

The Syrian refugee had escaped as officers prepared to storm the building at dawn on Saturday.

But he was taken into custody when the three asylum- seekers turned him over to the police after he asked them to hide him.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel led the praise for their bravery in capturing Albakr. Airports across the country had been put on high alert amid warnings that the fugitive with links to Islamic State was plotting to replicate the Brussels attacks.

After fleeing his flat in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, Albakr had made it about 50 miles to Leipzig railway station where he approached his fellow Syrians for help.

He asked if he could stay with them and went back to their flat. But two of the migrants had recognised him from wanted posters and, as soon as they arrived, tied him up with rope.

The third took a picture of him on a mobile phone and ran to the local police station.

Officers rushed to the property where they arrested him in the early hours of yesterday.

German intelligence officers believed Albakr was planning an attack after they saw him last week buying hot-melt adhesive, which can be used in the making of explosives. The suspected bombmaker, who was granted asylum last summer, had also been searching online for instructions on how to make ‘equipment for jihad’.

Inside his flat, officers found 3lbs 5oz of the same explosive used in the Brussels and Paris bombings, known as ‘mother of Satan’, as well as a pipe bomb and a vest.

A police spokesman said: ‘With this highly volatile explosive, even a few hundred grams is significant.

‘For an explosive of this type, it was a considerable amount.’

Yesterday Germans praised the trio while taking swipes at the antimigrant group Pegida.

One Twitter user said: ‘Syrian turns in terror suspect. I’m celebrating this. What about you, Pegida and co?’ Another quipped ‘the foreigners are taking jobs away from police’.

Germany has been on alert since two attacks in July which were claimed by IS.

Five people were injured when an Afghan refugee went on the rampage with an axe on a train in Wurzburg and 15 were hurt in a suicide bombing in Ansbach.

The bloodshed has rattled the country’s sense of security and fuelled concerns over last year’s record influx of nearly 900,000 refugees and migrants.

German police have said they have foiled a number of bomb attacks this year. In late September, police arrested a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in Cologne on suspicion he was planning a bombing in the name of IS.

A week earlier, they detained three men with forged Syrian passports believed to be a possible IS ‘sleeper cell’ with links to those behind the Paris attacks last November.

‘Highly volatile explosive’