Germany lifts alert of imminent attack in Munich, hunts suspects

A terror warning in Munich on New Year’s Eve that led to the evacuation of two train stations was not a false alert, security officials said Friday, although there have been no arrests. The evacuation of Munich’s main train station and the Pasing neighborhood station shortly before midnight reportedly followed a warning from a “friendly” foreign intelligence service that five to seven Islamic State militants from Syria and Iraq were planning coordinated attacks on different locations in Munich, including the two train stations.

I believe this decision was right, because I think we cannot take unnecessary risks when we are dealing with such concrete threats, concrete locations and a concrete time.

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann

European capitals have been on high alert since November’s Paris attacks, stoking fears new assaults could happen over the Christmas and New Year holidays. But German investigators, acting on information from “friendly countries,” including France, said they have so far failed to substantiate the threat. Authorities said they had received personal data for some of the alleged attackers and were in the process of investigating and verifying the information.

We have examined data relating to these names, but at the moment we do not know if these names are correct, whether these people exist and where they are.

Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae

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