German police said Thursday that they had “indications that a terror attack” was being planned for New Year’s Eve in Munich.
As thousands geared up to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the Bavarian capital, police sent out a terse 140-character message warning of a planned terror attack at two of the city’s train stations.
On Friday (local time), police took to social media telling people to avoid crowded areas and train stations after they received “serious information” of an “imminent” attack.
Authorities said they had received personal data, including the names of some of the militants and were still in the process of investigating and verifying the information.
Police in Munich are searching for a suspected terror cell of up to seven Syrians and Iraqis believed to have planned to carry out the suicide bombing, although no one has yet been arrested and it is unclear whether possible suspects are on the loose.
Andrae refuted speculation that the threat was a false alarm, saying that “if there is such information, we have to act”.
The stations – Munich’s central station and Pasing station some 8 km (5 miles) away – reopened several hours later after the threat could not be substantiated.
Yet with little to go on and no arrests almost 24 hours later, officials in Bavaria were defending their decision to close the two transit hubs hours before midnight and to flood the city with heavily armed, specially equipped officers – 550 as of Friday morning, including reinforcements from other parts of the southern state. Police could not find the suspects and are not even sure they exist, the Munich chief of police told reporters on Friday.
European capitals are on high security alert, with Brussels and Paris both scrapping fireworks for New Year’s celebrations.
Federal authorities said Lutchman met with an FBI informant and purchased supplies, including zip ties, a machete and duct tape. “But we don’t have a concrete indication that there will be an attack today or tomorrow at a specific location”, he said.
In New York on Thursday, police were taking extraordinary measures to ensure security for the traditional New Year’s Eve dropping of the crystal ball in Times Square, where more than a million people were expected.
Days after the November 13 attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group that left 130 dead, German police called off an worldwide football match at the last minute due to a bomb threat. He said that the police was still examining those hints of alleged suspects, and it was still not known whether there were so-called five to seven suspects from Syria and Iraq.