Police in the German capital of Berlin discovered a metal canister of gas with an explosive detonator outside a McDonald’s forcing authorities to evacuate the restaurant.
The device was found at a Mcdonald’s located in the district of Kreuzberg on Wrangelstrasse, known for its large migrant population and also being a hub for left wing activists. Police say the metal canister was found at around 9 am Thursday morning and was treated as a bomb threat, Die Welt reports.
After evacuating the restaurant and the area around it, police explosive specialists arrived on scene to dispose of the device. Shortly after 11 am, police said the situation was under control and the canister had been effectively disarmed by the bomb squad.
On Twitter, authorities wrote that the restaurant had also been ventilated saying that there was a “high concentration of gas” in the building.
Police also noted the device was found with an “ignition” device indicating the canister may have been a potential bomb, though no suspects have so far been named or identified.
A source close to the investigation told German tabloid Bild: “A signal would have been enough to blow the whole restaurant into the air. We assume this was an attempt at an attack.”
A police spokesman said there was currently no evidence the potential bomb had any connection with a police operation against far left extremists that took place in the district of Neukölln at 8:30 am.
Police evacuated an illegal left-extremist shop known as Friedel 54 in which left wing extremists were squatting. Police say the extremists attempted to electrify door knobs in the building to electrocute officers but were unsuccessful as police turned off all electricity to the building beforehand.
German authorities have admitted there is a growing threat of extremist violence from left wing activists in Berlin forcing even the far left party Die Linke to distance themselves from anarchists in Berlin.
“These individuals keep themselves quiet, they ignite cars and throw stones and explosives at people. They’re not neighbourhood romantics, they want to see cops die,” a police spokesman said.
Since the terror attack at the Berlin Christmas market in December, police in Berlin have been on heightened alert. After it was revealed that the attacker, failed Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri, had visited several radical Salafist mosques, raids were conducted across the city and elsewhere in Germany.
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