German authorities have detained a 21-year-old man in the central city of Magdeburg who was allegedly plotting to attack “large crowds,” regional officials tell AFP.
The man, who is originally from Central Asia, expressed plans to carry out an attack that “could have had an Islamist motivation,” according to the interior ministry of Saxony-Anhalt, the eastern state that includes Magdeburg.
The ministry says it is preparing a deportation order, citing a “fact-based prognosis” that the man may pose a danger to Germany or a “terrorist threat.”
The 21-year-old man was taken into custody on Friday, the same day that German police arrested five men for allegedly plotting an Islamist car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the southern German state of Bavaria.
The five suspects arrested in Bavaria include three Moroccans, a Syrian and a 56-year-old Egyptian who — according to the tabloid, “Bild” — serves as imam at a mosque in the Bavarian town of Dingolfing-Landau.
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