Police hunt ‘seven suicide bomb plotters’ after threat to new year celebrations

Up to seven suspects are being hunted by police who they believe were planning a suicide bomb attack in Munich. The Islamic State extremists were said to be behind a plot which led to the closure of two rail stations in the German city 90 minutes before the arrival of the new year. Police said they received a tip from the French authorities about an attack involving Syrians or Iraqis and planned for about midnight, Although both stations have reopened, 550 officers have been deployed to hunt down the suspects and secure the city, with authorities warning that the threat remains high. A spokesman said: “We still have many colleagues deployed. There is, as before, a high threat of terror.”

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

Security forces in many capitals were on raised alert for new year celebrations. Soldiers were on the streets of Paris, while police in London, Madrid, Berlin and Istanbul increased their presence as Europeans turned out to celebrate the arrival of 2016. In New York, police tightened security for the traditional New Year’s Eve dropping of the crystal ball in Times Square, where more than 1 million people hailed the arrival of 2016. In Belgium, police continued to question three people over an alleged terror plot. They called off the usual New Year’s Eve fireworks display in the capital, Brussels, but released three of the six people they arrested.

The threat is still there. It remains in fact at its highest level, and we are regularly disrupting planned attacks.

French president Francois Hollande

World munich threat