German soldier suspected of plot

BERLIN — Police have arrested a German soldier who had posed as a Syrian refugee on accusations that he was planning an attack, apparently motivated by anti-foreigner sentiment, in a case that prosecutors said Thursday was “more than strange.”

The 28-year-old lieutenant, whose name wasn’t released, faces charges of preparing an act of violence, said Frankfurt prosecutor’s spokesman Nadja Niesen.

The officer, who was “of German background” and stationed in France, is accused of stashing a loaded pistol in a bathroom at the Vienna airport that was discovered, leading Austrian authorities to take him into temporary custody when he went to retrieve it in February, Niesen said.

Though under investigation in Austria, authorities there did not keep him in custody and he was arrested in southern Germany on Wednesday.

A 24-year-old student from the soldier’s hometown of Offenbach also was arrested.