German special police stand in front of the Munich, southern Germany, main train station Thursday evening, December 31, 2015 after police warned of “imminent threat” of terror attack and ordered two train stations to be cleared.
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“The situation in Europe and in Germany remains serious in the new year”, Thomas de Maizière, the interior minister, said in a statement Friday.
The BBC is reporting that police are looking for “five to seven” suspects who are believed to be of Iraqi and Syrian nationality. Police could not find the suspects and are not even sure they exist, the Munich chief of police told reporters on Friday.
He would not give any further details.
“Please avoid gatherings of people and the Munich and Pasing train stations”, police said in a tweet. Both stations later reopened at around 3:30am, but police called for vigilance.
Bavarian official Joachim Herrmann said the terror group Islamic State was behind the threat.
With fears of a fresh attack high, both France and Belgium scrapped the traditional New Year fireworks displays in their respective capitals, with Brussels saying it had information about an alleged militant plot to attack “emblematic sites” over the holiday.
Belgian authorities cancelled all of the New Year festivities in Brussels while fireworks at Paris’ Champs-Elysees were called off.
The suspended train services returned to normal in the early hours of Friday, but the heavy police presence remained across the city.
They seized computers, mobile phones and equipment for “airsoft”, a sport using guns that shoot non lethal plastic pellets. On New Year’s Eve, six more were detained – but all were later released. Prosecutors said they were holding the other three for a further 24 hours.
“The tips included specified times and locations of the assailants from IS and we quickly came to the conclusion that we couldn’t just ignore the warnings from the intelligence agencies”, Herrmann told Bavaria’s BR public television network.
“The threat is still there”, he said in a televised address. At noon, some 100 extra officers were still present in the city.
The shutting down of the stations added to jitters in many capitals as Europe ushered in the New Year with heightened security after a year of militant attacks, the biggest of which killed 130 in Paris in November.
‘Normally, I go out to the bars on the Asian side of Istanbul, ‘ said 26-year-old IT expert Seyda Yilmaz.
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That warning spoke of a threat from Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers.
