German security officials announced Thursday the arrest of 4 people, including a 16-year-old boy, who planned to bomb a synagogue in the western city of Hagen. The arrests took place inarea Hebrew of Yom Kippur.
“One of the four people was a teenager living in Hagen,” police spokeswoman Tanja Pfeffer in nearby Dortmund told The Associated Press.
However, Pfeffer declined to comment on a report published by Der Spiegel magazine in which claimed that this teenager was of Syrian nationality.
Police also added that Thursday’s arrests were preceded by searches in several houses in Hagen.
surrounding the synagogue
In addition, the German news agency “dpa” reported that Herbert Roel, Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, the state in where Hagen is, confirmed that there was a risk of an attack. Speaking to young police officers in Cologne, he said: “Your colleagues probably prevented an attack.”
Interestingly, police sealed off a synagogue in Hagen on Wednesday afternoon after receiving information about a possible attack. Dozens of police officers put up in security the synagogue at night and remained in place until Thursday morning.
The German police put in safetyarea in front of the Hagen synagogue on September 16 (AFP)
The case comes nearly two years after an attack on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle on Yom Kippur. The suspect, a right-wing extremist, tried to enter the synagogue to shoot those inside, but failed, but killed two people on the street and in a restaurant before being arrested.
Read More About: World News
