[DW] Police have detained six men in Berlin who reportedly have links to the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack. The lead suspect was planning to attack spectators at the race with knives, according to a newspaper report.Police have incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
six people suspected of planning a "crime" during the Berlin Half Marathon on Sunday.
"There were separate indications that those arrested, aged between 18 and 21 years, were participating in the preparation of a crime in connection with this event," prosecutors and police wrote in a joint statement. Berlin police wrote separately on Twitter that six people had been arrested.
German daily newspaper Die Welt had reported earlier that one of the men was planning a knife attack on spectators at the half-marathon. Officers had reportedly found two sharpened knives during a raid on the man's apartment in the west of the city.
Link to 2016 Christmas market attack
According to Die Welt, the lead suspect who had planned the knife attack reportedly knew Anis Amri, a Tunisian who killed 12 people and injured several dozen more when he drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016.
The suspect reportedly wanted to take Dire Revenge for Amri's death. Italian police shot and killed the 24-year-old Amri ‐ who had pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
" terrorist group ‐ while he was on the run in Milan.
The lead suspect arrested on Sunday was not however a "concrete threat" as security services had been observing him for some time.
The other three suspects also had links to Amri, according to Die Welt.
Heightened security
This year's half-marathon attracted more than 30,000 participants, according to organizer SCC Events. An SCC spokesperson told dpa news agency that "everything had gone smoothly" during the race.
Berlin authorities had stepped up security for the event following a van attack in the western German city of Munster on Saturday that left two bystanders dead.
| The Daily Mail adds: |