Teenage ISIS supporters caught planning Christmas Market firebomb terror attack

01 December 2023 , 16:13

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Illustrative image shows police officers at Christmas market in Leverkusen, Germany. (Image: Newsflash)

Two teen ISIS supporters have been arrested by German authorities on suspicion of planning a militant attack at a Christmas market or synagogue.

A 15-year-old boy and an alleged 16-year-old accomplice are accused of plotting to blow up a small truck using fuel at a Christmas market in Leverkusen, a city in western Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state, prosecutors said Thursday. One teen was detained on Tuesday in Burscheid, a town near Cologne, and a court in Leverkusen on Wednesday ordered him kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

The second was arrested in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stuebgen said in a statement: "The Brandenburg police arrested a Russian youth who is suspected of having prepared an attack."

Herbert Reul (CDU), Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia (Roberto Pfeil/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

The two suspects allegedly planned to leave Germany together after the attack and join the Islamic State-Khorasan Province extremist group, an IS offshoot active in and around Afghanistan. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said before news of the arrests emerged Wednesday that the threat situation in the country has escalated since Hamas’ October 7 attack in southern Israel.

The agency pointed to the risk of radicalisation of lone assailants who use simple means to attack "soft targets". He added that "the danger is real and higher than it has been for a long time."

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In December 2016, a jihadist killed 13 people when he hijacked a lorry and drove it into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. German domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), stressed that another similar attack could happen in Germany any day.

In a video posted on social media, one of the suspects is said to have called for a "holy war" against the West. Haldenwang said: "The flood of digital images in social media, often paired with fake news, contributes to emotionalisation and can act as a radicalisation factor.

"The situation is exacerbated by foreign state actors who seek to exploit or even reinforce this mood. We are working at full speed to thwart potential plots against the security of Jews, Israeli institutions and major events."

Rachel Hagan