Anti-terror investigators have arrested an Iranian national (32) in the Ruhr area who is said to have prepared an Islamic attack. The detectives searched the man’s apartment in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday evening. The man is suspected of obtaining the toxins cyanide and ricin for the crime, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor, the Recklinghausen police and the Münster police said early Sunday morning.
The 32-year-old was reportedly apprehended along with another man. It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target for the attack. The investigation was still ongoing in the morning.
Four years ago, studies in Cologne showed how dangerous ricin is: in a 15-storey building in the high-rise district of Chorweiler, a Tunisian and his German wife produced the chemical and set off test explosions. A foreign secret service became suspicious of online purchases of large quantities of castor seeds and gave a tip.
Both were sentenced to long prison terms. An expert report found that, purely mathematically, 13,500 people could have died from the amount of poison. With its planned dispersion by a steel-ball cluster bomb, it would have killed about 200 people. (SDA)
According to a report from “Bild,” employees of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) were also on the scene as consultants because of the biological and chemical hazards to emergency services. Several employees of the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) and a harmless commando were also deployed. The BKA declined to comment on the operation and referred to the Attorney General’s Office. According to the RKI, the highly toxic ricin is on the war weapons list under ‘biological weapons’. Cyanide is also highly toxic, even the smallest amounts are fatal to humans.
Perpetrator has prepared “serious subversive act of violence”.
“The suspect is suspected of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state,” the detectives said. “The search serves to find corresponding toxins and other evidence.” The Iranian and the second arrested man were led in underpants and a T-shirt or with a makeshift jacket across the street to an emergency vehicle, eyewitnesses reported. Neither of them resisted. According to a WDR report, the two men are said to be brothers.
“The evidence has been secured and is being evaluated,” the investigating authorities wrote. Whether the man will appear before the investigating judge has not yet been decided. The proceedings are being conducted by the Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism of North Rhine-Westphalia at the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office. According to information from “Bild”, the federal detective has been investigating the Iranian for several days. A “friend of the secret service” is said to have warned the German security authorities of the risk of a chemical bomb attack.
On-site investigation completed
The detectives struck around midnight. The scene was cordoned off over a large area. Police, fire brigade and rescue workers were on site with a large contingent. Many emergency services wore protective suits. The evidence was taken in blue barrels to a decontamination point set up by the fire brigade, a dpa reporter reports.
Police stopped work in the searched apartment early Sunday morning. Only a few hours after entry, nothing was left of the special forces deployment on the house in a small shopping street. A window in the searched apartment on the first floor was slightly open, no light was on anywhere. Patrol cars occasionally drove past the building. Revelers passing by the building reacted in disbelief when they heard about the major operation around midnight.
Calm had also returned to the decontamination point of the fire brigade a few kilometers away in the early morning. There, emergency services in protective suits had handled evidence sealed in blue barrels on the spot. (SDA/chs)