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German Police Arrest Two Men in Berlin Deemed a Threat

The two men were arrested in the Britz section of the German capital after a search was conducted on an Islamic cultural center, police said.

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Police arrested two men after raids at two Berlin locations on Thursday afternoon after tip-offs about known Islamists believed to pose a threat of violence.

The police said they were also examining a “suspicious object” discovered during the operation in the Britz neighborhood of Berlin, prompting the evacuation of several nearby buildings as “precautionary” measure.

Today’s raid came as authorities lowered the terror alert level in Brussels after five days of “lockdown”.

The moves follow attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 people and led Hollande to call for a grand coalition of countries to fight Islamic State.

The city was locked down with armed police and troops patrolling near deserted streets and the metro system completely shut down, while schools stayed shut on Monday and Tuesday.

A defense expert from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) told media earlier in the day that Germany would become “a more active contributor than it is now”.

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The mosque, the city’s biggest, is located just a few blocks from the major European Union institutions and many embassies and was cordoned off by police and firemen, some of them in white hazard materials suits.

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