A alleged Islamist He was arrested this Thursday in the Bavarian city of hoof (southern Germany) because he was suspected of intending to attack soldiers of the German Bundeswehr.
The man, aged 27 and of Syrian nationality, had acquired a few days ago two machetes with 40-centimeter-long blades, as reported by the Munich public prosecutor’s office on Friday.
With them, the prisoner heard “kill as many soldiers as possible”, according to the prosecution, which indicated that he was considering attacking the military during the break that some of them take at noon in the city center.
Investigators suspect the individual was acting under the influence of an iradical islamist deology and that he intended by this attack to sow panic and intimidate the population
The investigating judge on Friday ordered the defendant to be placed in preventive detention for “preparation of a serious act constituting a danger to the State”. The Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism has taken over the investigation into the case.
Last week, a man had already tried to attack with a machete to the officers who were inside a police station in the city of Linz on the Rhine, in the west of the country, although they managed to control it without anyone being injured, in an incident in which a possible jihadist origin is also being investigated.
Last month, a man killed three people with a knife during a municipal festival in Solingen (west), in an attack that was later claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State.
