German authorities said yesterday that they had foiled a bombing plot against a public race scheduled around Frankfurt for today’s Labor Day holiday. The announcement followed the arrest in the western state of Hesse of a couple close to Salafist circles, identified as Halil and Senay D. Their two children were placed in social care.
The case recalled the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon by the American brothers of Chechen origin, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Their two homemade bombs killed three people and injured about 300.
Frankfurt prosecutors said they found a homemade device “ready for use” at the suspects’ home in the small town of Oberursel, near Frankfurt, along with an assault rifle and heavy ammunition.
Police said they had watched the couple for several days after they were seen in late March buying large quantities of suspicious, flammable materials at a shop and identifying themselves under false names. The 35-year-old man of Turkish origin was also seen near the race location.
German newspaper Die Welt quoted investigators as saying that Halil D. had contacts with Salafist circles in Frankfurt and Al-Qaeda.
Police said further searches were taking place in the Oberursel area. Authorities had repeatedly described the terrorist threat as high in Germany, which had not experienced such attacks up to that point.
Germany’s domestic security agency, the BfV, said the number of Salafists in the country was growing, as was the number of potential ISIS recruits. It estimated that around 450 people had traveled from Germany to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups.