Munich lifts alert after New Year terror threat

Police in Munich are hunting Islamic State suspects after a foreign intelligence agency warned of a “concrete” plan to send suicide bombers to the city’s train stations during New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Investigators had in hand the names of some of the “five to seven” suspects allegedly planning to blow themselves up at locations including Munich’s main rail hub and Pasing station in the western part of the city, he said, but have not yet found any evidence.

Two train stations in Munich were evacuated shortly after it rang in the New Year when a call was received with a terror warning about ISIS and possible bomb attacks.

“We don’t know whether these names are right, whether these people exist, and where they are if they do”, Munich’s police president, Hubertus Andra, said.

The information police received referenced five to seven possible attackers and included personal information for some of them.

In the early hours of the morning, Munich Police confirmed the stations have since been reopened.

Police officers, some in riot gear, were posted at different entrances of Munich’s main rail station, which was eerily quiet on a night of traditionally raucous celebrations.

“The situation in Europe and Germany continues to be serious in the new year”, de Maiziere said in a written statement.

Germany shuts Munich train stations after tip IS planned attack Germany shuts Munich train stations after tip IS planned attack “We still have many colleagues deployed”.

154-a-16-(Sajjan Gohel (SAH’-zhahn GOH’-hehl), director for worldwide security, Asia Pacific Foundation, in AP interview)-“number of occasions”-Security analyst Sajjan Gohel says the terror threat in Munich comes as no surprise”. In Paris, the traditional fireworks display was called off, but thousands of people partied on the Champs Elysees in the biggest public gathering since the November attacks.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry reported that the tip came from French intelligence, and indicated that ISIS was behind the plot.

Belgian police said late on Thursday that three people had been arrested for questioning as part of an investigation into the plot.

The Munich alarm followed days of security warnings in Europe.

Herrmann told Bavarian state television that there was still a high risk of a terrorist attack throughout Europe, but there was now “no direct indication of an attack today or tomorrow on a specific place”.

On Decemder 26, police in the Austrian capital Vienna said a “friendly” intelligence service had warned European capitals of the possibility of a shooting or bomb attack before New Year, and that police across the continent had stepped up security measures.

Federal interior minister Thomas de Maizière defended the heightened alert in one of Germany’s largest cities.