Arrests in Germany over ‘Cologne cathedral attack plot’

BERLIN: German police arrested three people on Sunday over an alleged attack plot targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year´s Eve.

The “alleged means of attack” is a car, said police in the western city, adding that security measures have been stepped up around the site.

The three suspects are believed to be linked to a Tajik who was arrested on Christmas Eve, said Cologne police chief Johannes Hermann.

Bild daily had reported then that the four are all Tajiks who allegedly wanted to carry out attacks for Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an IS offshoot in Afghanistan.

“Islamist people and groups” are “more active than ever at the moment,” warned Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Cologne is located.