German police arrested three teenagers accused of planning a knife or firebomb attack on churches and police stations for the Islamic State.
Unnamed teenagers ages 15, 15, and 16-years-old were arrested by police executing a warrant issued at Easter in the Dusseldorf of the North Rhine-Westphalia region. Two of those arrested are girls, and one a boy.
The security services said they had detected the group using an instant messenger group chat to discuss plans to launch attacks against targets including people in churches and police stations. Germany’s Die Welt reports the weapons involved could have been knives or firebombs, and the cities considered for the alleged strike were Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Cologne. Acquiring firearms had allegedly been discussed.
It is alleged the teen trio are believed to have been working for the Islamic State and while they had not reached the point of having formed a “concrete” plan, nevertheless investigators said they foresaw “danger” from the group. It is stated the father of one of those arrested is already known to the security services for collecting money for the Islamic State.
Cologne Cathedral has now become a familiar focus for migrant crime and Islamist plots in Germany, its precinct having been the setting for the 2015-16 migrant sex attacks event, and and the church itself an apparently irresistible target for would-be terrorists. In recent months a Turk and a Tajik have been arrested over alleged plots to attack the cathedral.
