Two suspects detained with 155 kilograms of pyrotechnic explosives may have links to a neo-Nazi terrorist group, German DPA news agency reported, citing a local prosecutor’s office. One reportedly had an explosive device bearing a swastika and SS signs.

The explosives were found in a private flat in Lauterecken in western Germany on December 29. A local prosecutor’s office said the suspects may belong to a neo-Nazi group called the ‘Oldschool Society,’ DPA reports.

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In addition to the explosives, investigators found an improvised explosive device bearing a swastika and SS runes, according to the report.

The detention of the two men and seizure of the pyrotechnic explosives was reported earlier in January by the prosecutor’s office itself. One suspect was caught with 110 kilograms of the material, and the other with 45, according to their statement, which stressed that the priority of the investigation was to find out if they had connections to far-right extremists.

The statement added that investigators were also tasked with finding out if the suspects had planned to set off an explosion during the New Year’s celebrations in the center of the nearby town of Kaiserslautern – a charge they denied.

The suspects, aged 18 and 24, both denied all charges, describing themselves as “amateur pyrotechnicians” and claiming the explosives were meant to be used during New Year Eve’s celebrations.

The ‘Oldschool Society’ came into the spotlight in 2015 when German police arrested four members of the neo-Nazi group during an anti-terrorist raid. In January of 2016, it was revealed that the four, identified in the local media as Andreas H., 57, Markus W., 40, Denise Vanessa G., 23, and Olaf O., 47, had been planning to bomb refugee centers and assassinate Islamist clerics.

The ‘Oldschool Society’ had allegedly sent Markus W. and Denise Vanessa G. to the Czech Republic, where they attempted to buy a large quantity of explosive materials, while Andreas H. had been working on how to increase the power of their nail bombs.

The four extremists began meeting in November of 2014, well before the massive influx of refugees reached current record levels, and launched a Facebook group to disseminate their ideas and recruit followers.

According to a Spiegel report, their Facebook cover at the time was an infamous photo of the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp that read “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”). </s> Two suspects detained with 155 kilograms of pyrotechnic explosives may have links to a neo-Nazi terrorist group, German DPA news agency reported, citing a local prosecutor's office. One reportedly had anThe explosives were found in a private flat in Lauterecken in western Germany on December 29. A local prosecutor's office said the suspects' DPA reports.In addition to the explosives, investigators found an improvised explosive device bearing a swastika and SS runes, according to the report.The detention of the two men and seizure of the pyrotechnic explosives was reported earlier in January by the prosecutor's office itself. One suspect was caught with 110 kilograms of the material, and the other with 45, according to their statement, which stressed that the priority of the investigation was to find out if they had connections to far-right extremists.The statement added that investigators were also tasked with finding out if the suspects had planned to set off an explosion during the New Year's celebrations in the center of the nearby town of Kaiserslautern - a charge they denied.The suspects, aged 18 and 24, both denied all charges, describing themselves as "amateur pyrotechnicians" and claiming the explosives were meant to be used during New Year Eve's celebrations.The 'Oldschool Society' came into the spotlight in 2015 whenThe 'Oldschool Society' had allegedly sent Markus W. and Denise Vanessa G. to the Czech Republic, where they attempted to buy a large quantity of explosive materials, while Andreas H. had been working on how to increase the power of their nail bombs.The four extremists began meeting in November of 2014, well before the massive influx of refugees reached current record levels, andAccording to a Spiegel report , their Facebook cover at the time was an infamous photo of the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp that read "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work sets you free"). </s> Two alleged supporters of a neo-Nazi terrorist group have been arrested after 155kg of explosives were discovered in Germany.

One suspect had built a homemade bomb emblazoned with a swastika and symbol of the Nazi SS, prosecutors announced on Saturday.

The men, aged 18 and 24, were arrested after the explosives were discovered inside a house in Lauterecken, causing more than 80 local residents to be evacuated from the surrounding area so the material could be safely removed.

The pair denied planning a terror attack when they were arrested in December, SWR television reported, claiming to be amateur pyrotechnics preparing for a New Year’s Eve firework display.

The two men, of German origin, are being held on suspicion of violating explosives laws and preparing a “serious act of state-threatening violence”.

Prosecutors are examining a possible link to the Oldschool Society (OSS), an extremist organisation known to have planned attacks on refugee centres and mosques since it emerged in 2014.

A spokesperson said the teenage suspect told investigators he had attended an OSS meeting in Rhineland-Palatinate state over the summer, the DPA news agency reported.

Four members of the group are already on trial in Munich for allegedly planning an attack on asylum seekers.

Federal prosecutors charged the three men and a woman with “establishing a terror organisation” and preparing attacks using explosives in January 2015.

Officials said members had planned to bomb refugee accommodation in the German town of Borna, and travelled to the Czech Republic to buy pyrotechnics which they planned to make into bombs packed with nails and fuel.

The interior ministry has classified the OSS as a dangerous organisation but it was also dubbed the “stupidest terror group in Germany” by media reporting that members discussed plots openly on Facebook.

A rise in extremism has been documented in Germany since the start of the refugee crisis and a series of terror attacks, with far-right groups including Pegida staging protests against immigration and the “Islamification of Europe”.

Numerous attacks on refugee centres have been documented as part of a rise in political violence by both the right and left wing.

German security services also remain on alert for possible Isis-inspired terror attacks following the massacre at a Berlin Christmas market and two previous attacks over the summer. </s> Three people have been arrested after German police found several hundred grams of explosives in an apartment they raided in connection with a Syrian man suspected of planning a bomb attack in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

The explosives were “relatively well hidden” in the apartment, which was raided yesterday, said Saxony police spokesman, Tom Bernhardt.

Police are still searching for the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Jaber Albakr, from Damascus.

Two people who knew Albakr have been taken into custody in the Chemnitz train station area, with a third held in Chemnitz centre. The three are being questioned.

The explosives were not considered stable enough to move and they would probably be destroyed in place once other residents in the area have been evacuated, said Bernhardt.

The apartment was raided after local authorities received a tip-off from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency that the suspect might be there, and that he was thought to be planning a bomb attack.

When police knocked down the door, however, no-one was inside.

Saxony police put out an alert, identifying the suspect and urging anyone with any information of his whereabouts to contact authorities. They released a photo of a dark-haired man wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

“We have to assume that he is dangerous,” Bernhardt said. Authorities have not said where they think the suspected attack was going to take place.

The suspect is believed to be connected to Islamic extremist groups. Bernhardt said, however, that police are still trying to determine what his motivation might be.

Authorities released no details about how long the suspect had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he had come in the wave of asylum seekers in 2015.

Germany took in 890,000 asylum seekers last year, with Syrians fleeing civil war forming the single largest group.

Neighbours reported hearing an explosion during the raid, but that was the police assault team blowing open the apartment door, said police spokeswoman Kathlen Zink.

Germany has been on edge since two attacks this summer claimed by Islamic State in which several people were injured and both assailants died.

Two other attacks unrelated to Islamic extremism, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, have also contributed to heightened fears. </s> BERLIN: The German city of Chemnitz was in lockdown Saturday after armed police launched a huge manhunt for a Syrian suspected of planning a bomb attack, as the country grapples with a weakened sense of security following recent terror assaults.

Police, who told people to stay in their homes, named the suspect as 22-year-old Syrian Jaber Albakr. Photographs posted on social media showed armed police clad in black balaclavas and helmets at an apartment building in the eastern city.

Germany has been on edge after suffering two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) in July — an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg that injured five and a suicide bombing in Ansbach that left 15 wounded.

In the latest alert, police in the state of Saxony issued a search warrant for Albakr, saying he was born in Syria in January 1994.

They said Albakr was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and was “suspected of preparing a bomb attack”.

A search of an apartment in Chemnitz detected traces of explosives but failed to capture the suspect or find a bomb, a police spokesman said.

He said police launched Saturday’s operation after receiving information from domestic intelligence services.

“We are carrying out in Chemnitz a large-scale operation due to suspicions that a bomb attack was being prepared,” police said on Twitter, urging residents to stay at home.

“The explosion heard in the area was a police entry measure. The wanted person has not been found,” police added.

The attacks in July rattled Germans’ sense of security and fuelled concerns over the country’s record influx of migrants and refugees last year.

German police said previously they had identified 523 people who posed a security threat to the country, around half of whom were known to be currently in Germany.

On September 21 German officials said a 16-year-old Syrian refugee had been arrested on suspicion of planning a bomb attack in the name of IS.

The youngster, thought to have been radicalised only recently, was detained in a special forces operation at a shelter for asylum-seekers in the western city of Cologne, police and prosecutors said.

Initial information gathered from the teenager’s mobile phone showed that he had expressed an “unmistakeable willingness” to carry out an attack, Klaus-Stephan Becker of the Cologne police told reporters.

A week earlier, German police detained three men with forged Syrian passports accused of being IS militants and labelled a possible “sleeper cell” with links to the assailants behind the November attacks in Paris.

More than 200 police took part in pre-dawn raids in northern Germany to detain the men, suspected of either plotting an attack or awaiting orders to commit one.

German authorities have urged the public not to confuse migrants with “terrorists”, but have acknowledged that more jihadists may have entered the country among the one million asylum-seekers who arrived last year. -AFP </s> Image copyright AP Image caption Police failed to find the suspect in a raid on an apartment

Police in the eastern German city of Chemnitz have detained three people as they continue a search for a suspect believed to be planning a bomb attack.

Acting on a tip-off from the domestic intelligence service, police raided a flat but failed to find the suspect, Jaber al-Bakr, 22, who was born in Syria. He remains on the run.

Several hundred grams of "highly volatile" explosives were found at the property, investigators said.

They were destroyed by a bomb squad.

About 100 people were evacuated from the block of flats as the explosives were moved for a controlled detonation.

Two people in contact with Mr al-Bakr were detained at Chemnitz railway station and another person was detained near the flat in the Fritz-Heckert neighbourhood, Kathlen Zink of Saxony's criminal investigation office said.

She said they were suspected of being "linked with the suspect somehow" and had been taken in for questioning.

Image copyright AFP Image caption A robot capable of disarming bombs has been deployed at Chemnitz railway station

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Police check cars at Berlin's Schoenefeld

The "where, when, how and why" of the planned attack remained unknown according to Tom Bernhardt, a spokesman for the same office.

He said the explosives in the flat were "relatively well hidden".

Saxony police have released pictures of Damascus-born Mr al-Bakr wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt with a colourful print.

They have not provided any information about how long he had been in Germany.

They have urged anyone with information about him to come forward.

Image copyright @PolizeiSachsen

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has waned since her decision to open the borders to refugees and migrants last year, admitting more than a million people, many of them Syrian.

In July, an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach wounded 20 people and were claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS). </s> BERLIN — German investigators found several hundred grams of explosives in an apartment they raided Saturday in the eastern city of Chemnitz as they sought a Syrian man suspected of planning a bombing attack. The suspect remained on the run but three contacts were detained and being questioned, police said.

Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt told reporters the explosives were found by investigators combing carefully through the apartment, which was raided earlier in the day.

"They were not just lying out on the kitchen table, they were relatively well hidden," he said.

He said the explosives were not considered stable enough to move and they would likely be destroyed in place once other residents in the area were evacuated.

The apartment was raided after local authorities received a tip from Germany's domestic intelligence agency that the suspect might be there and that he was thought to be planning a bombing attack. When police knocked down the door, however, no one was inside.

Saxony police put out an alert, identifying the suspect as 22-year-old Jaber Albakr from the Damascus area, and urging anyone with any information of his whereabouts to contact authorities. They released a photo of a dark-haired man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and said he was last seen wearing similar clothes.

"We have to assume that he is dangerous," Bernhardt said.

Two people who had "contacts" with Albakr were taken into custody near the Chemnitz train station and a third was found downtown in the city, Bernhardt said. They were being questioned with the hope that they might help authorities find Albakr, he said.

Authorities have not said where they think the suspected attack was going to take place.

The German news agency dpa reported, citing unidentified German security sources, that the suspect is believed to be connected to Islamic extremist groups. Bernhardt said, however, that police are still trying to determine what his motivation might be and would only say he was "known" to German intelligence.

Authorities released no details about how long the suspect had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he had come in the wave of asylum-seekers in 2015. Germany took in 890,000 asylum-seekers last year, and Syrians fleeing civil war were the single largest group.

Neighbors reported hearing an explosion during the raid, but that was the police assault team blowing open the apartment door, police spokeswoman Kathlen Zink said.

Germany has been on edge since two attacks this summer claimed by the Islamic State in which multiple people were injured and both assailants died. Two other attacks unrelated to Islamic extremism, including a deadly mall shooting in Munich, have also contributed to fears. </s> Police in northern Italy have detained three men, including one linked to a neo-fascist Italian political party, after uncovering a huge stash of automatic weapons, a missile and material featuring Nazi symbols.

Police in northern Italy have detained three men, including one linked to a neo-fascist Italian political party, after uncovering a huge stash of automatic weapons, a missile and material featuring Nazi symbols.

Officers said the discoveries stemmed from a previous investigation into Italians who took part in the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

In a statement, Turin police said one of the men arrested had in 2001 run unsuccessfully as a Senate candidate for the neo-fascist Forza Nuova party.

At his home in Gallarate, police found nine assault weapons, nearly 30 hunting rifles, pistols and bayonets as well as ammunition and antique Nazi plaques featuring swastikas.

Two other men were detained after police found a French-made missile at an airport hangar that they were apparently seeking to sell. </s> Germany is on a terror alert after armed cops launched a frantic hunt to find a suspect preparing to launch an imminent bomb attack on an airport.

Parts of the city of Chemnitz are on currently on lockdown as dozens of heavily-armed officers flood the region in search of a suspected terrorist.

Saxony Police revealed they were hunting Syrian national Jaber Albakr who is originally from Damascus.

Photographs of the 22-year-old suspect were also released with officers pleading for anyone with information on his whereabouts to come forward.

It is not known if he is armed or has explosives on him.

Terrified residents posted images of officers clad in black helmets, balaclavas and body armour with their assault weapons raised and poised.

Dozens of officers swooped on a housing estate in the east German region this morning and immediately cordoned off an area while taking people from their homes and taking them to safety.

A police spokeswoman has told German media the operation is in response to evidence of a 'serious threat'.

He added: "Major road closers and evacuations are necessary.

"We have a static threat situation in the Fritz Heckert district and have deployed a large taskforce on the ground."

Some residents told how they were woken in the morning by police brandishing machine guns.

The officers told them to leave their homes quickly and quietly before centring on one particular home.

Officers circled a particular flat and then used explosives to blast their way in but found the property empty - sparking fears a potential terrorist was on the run.

A police spokesman did confirm 'explosives residue' was found inside the flat and announced an 'international manhunt' was now underway for the suspect.

Saxony Police tweeted: "We are currently carry a large-scale operation on suspicion of preparing a bomb attack.

"The explosion heard was an access measure of the police. A relevant person could not be found."

Terrified residents have been posting images of officers clad in black with their weapons poised in the area around the home.

Police have taken to Twitter warning people to stay clear of the 'risk situation'.

Pictures from the scene show huge numbers of officers filing down roads and alleys - apparently surrounding the area.

The force tweeted: "At the moment we have a static threat situation in the Fritz-Heckert area in Chemnitz, C0810 and with strong forces on the ground."

The Fritz Heckert district, known locally as Fritz-Heckert-Gebiet, was built as one of the largest housing developments in Communist East Germany, consisting of large tower blocks once housing 90,000 people.

Germany is already on high alert after a number of attacks in recent months.

In the space of just a week in July this year there was a horrifying axe attack on train passengers and then a bomb attack on a cafe by ISIS sympathisers.

Teenage refugee Muhammad Riyad was shot and killed as he tried to flee the bloody carriage where he hacked at terrified passengers.

Incredibly he failed to kill anyone but five were left with serious injuries.

Just five days later 15 people were injured when Mohammad Daleel detonated a suicide bomb outside a wine bar in Ansbach.
German police detain two suspects with over 150kg of pyrotechnic explosives and an IED inscribed with a swastika and SS runes, stating the two may have a connection to a neo-Nazi terrorist group.