Ludwig Waldinger declined to confirm reports by public broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk that the man appeared to be en route to Paris when he was arrested.

A spokesman for the Bavarian police stated they arrested the fifty one-yr-previous on November 5 on a motorway close to the city of Rosenheim after investigators discovered eight machine weapons, a number of handguns and explosives in his VW Golf.

Earlier today, state premier Horst Seehofer said that there was “reason to believe” that the suspect was linked to the attackers, and that the case “shows how important it is for us to have a few clarity on who is in our country and who is travelling through our country”.

“There is reason to believe that this is possibly linked”, Seehofer said.

Bavarian authorities immediately alerted officials in France, who responded by advising the Germans to submit an official request for assistance in a criminal matter, Bayerische Rundfunk said, adding that the man wasn’t known to authorities in Montenegro. “We are now looking into whether he is connected to the terror attacks in Paris”, a federal spokesperson for German police told Ria Novosti, according to Sputnik News.

“There is a connection to France but it’s not certain that there is a link to this attack”, said de Maiziere.

Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the 51-year old from Montenegro had an address in Paris as destination in his vehicle navigation system and that as far as he knew the French authorities had been informed about it.

The minister also made a plea against linking the terror attacks in Paris to the record influx of asylum seekers into Europe.