By 3.30 am, the stations had been reopened and the terror alert was downgraded later on Friday to the level it stood at before New Year’s Eve.
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Just shortly before the city rang in the new year, Munich police had evacuated the main train station and a station in the Pasing neighborhood. There is, as before, a high threat of terror, ‘ a police spokesman said.
Police in Munich warned of a “serious, imminent threat” by Islamic State group suicide bombers wanting to commit an attack on New Year’s Eve and asked people to stay away from the city’s main train station and a second train station in the city’s Pasing neighborhood.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann revealed that the crucial tip-off had come from France, as he underlined that “the French do not make up this sort of information”.
Mr Herrmann called on Munich residents to be cautious, but at the same time not to let terror threats interfere with their normal lives.
Throughout the Munich alert, police kept up a stream of messages in several languages on Twitter, at times alternating incongruously between security warnings and New Year greetings.
The action by German authorities added to jitters in many capitals as Europe ushered in the New Year with heightened security after a year of militant attacks.
Security officials in Munich are saying the terror warning posted on New Year’s Eve was not a false alarm, despite there being no related arrests.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the situation in Germany and Europe “continues to be serious in the new year”.
Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Superintendent Jo Edwards said: “We’re mindful of what’s going on in other cities and across the world, we’re linked into the intelligence services, but there is no specific intelligence about the event in London tonight”. In Paris, the traditional fireworks display was called off, but thousands of people partied on the Champs Elysees in the biggest public gathering since the November attacks.
The newspaper reported the plot involved plans for suicide bombers to detonate explosives at the stations, with others waiting to detonate secondary devices when emergency services arrived at the scene.
“Good morning to those, who spent the night out in #munich!”
On Decemder 26, police in the Austrian capital Vienna said a “friendly” intelligence service had warned European capitals of the possibility of a shooting or bomb attack before New Year, and that police across the continent had stepped up security measures. The threat was considered credible and included names of “about half” of the suspects.
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Belgian police said late on Thursday that three people had been arrested for questioning as part of an investigation into the plot.
