Large forces of German police arrested four people today (Thursday) in the West German city of Hagen, after a clear threat was received of an intention to carry out attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the city.
According to the country's media, the four, Syrian immigrants including a 16-year-old boy, planned to harm worshipers during Yom Kippur.
Local police say the alert provided "details of the time, place and operations of a major terrorist attack."
"We have received very serious and very specific information about an attack on synagogues that will take place during the Yom Kippur events. A response was received to an attack whose motives are related to radical Islam," said the local interior minister of the state of Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Raoul.
A Jewish community center, among the targets of the planned attack in Hagen, AP
Residents of the city of Hagen reported a large number of policemen armed with machine guns in the streets and the vigilant movement of security forces in the city even after the arrests.
In 2019, a synagogue in the city of Ella in Germany was attacked during Yom Kippur and two non-Jews were shot dead by a far-right terrorist.
"We received a very specific and serious tipoff that an attack on the synagogue could take place during the Yom Kippur festival. A reference was made to an Islamist-motivated threat situation,"