Police detain teenager after threat to German synagogue
BERLIN – A 16-year-old boy and three other people were detained Thursday in connection with a suspected plan for an Islamic extremist attack on a synagogue in the German city of Hagen, authorities said.
The detentions took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, and two years after a deadly attack in another German city on the Yom Kippur holiday.
Police cordoned off the synagogue on Wednesday and a worship service planned for the evening was called off.
Officials had received “very serious and concrete information” that there could be an attack on the synagogue during Yom Kippur, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhinewestphalia state, where Hagen is located.