German authorities arrest suspect after synagogue bomb threat

POLICE in Germany yesterday arrested a Syrian teenager suspected of being an Islamist terrorist, with authorities saying the move had foiled an attack on a synagogue in the Ruhr region.

The 16-year-old was arrested at his home in the town of Hagen in North Rhine-westphalia as police continued to search for conspirators in what was reported to be a bomb plot planned for the Yom Kippur holiday, which began on Wednesday.

Three men were also detained at the property but it was not immediately clear whether they were involved.

Herbert Reul, state interior minister, described the planned attack as “an Islamist threat”, saying that police had received information about when, where and how it was to be carried out.

On Wednesday evening, a large police deployment cordoned off the town synagogue shortly before the local Jewish community was to celebrate Yom Kippur. The service had to be cancelled as sniffer dogs searched the building for explosives and weapons, but nothing was found.

Bild Zeitung reported that local authorities received a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service that the 16-year-old suspect had informed members of an Islamist chat group that he planned to attack a synagogue.

Armin Laschet, who is running as the Chancellor candidate for Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said: “We will do everything we can to clarify which networks may have been behind this attack.”

The alleged plot comes almost two years after a heavily-armed far-right extremist attempted to break into a synagogue in the eastern town of Halle – also during Yom Kippur – with the intention of killing the worshippers inside.

Although he failed to break through the building’s bolted door, he murdered two other people in the inner city and even streamed a video of his crime over the internet.

Christine Lambrecht, German justice minister, said that it was “intolerable that Jews have once again been subjected to such a terrible threat and have not been able to peacefully celebrate the beginning of their holiest festival, Yom Kippur, together”.