A German citizen of reportedly Syrian heritage was arrested at an airport outside Gotenborg, Sweden, on suspicion of trying to carry ‘Mother of Satan’ explosive TATP onto an aeroplane.
A German national in his twenties was arrested by Swedish police on Thursday at Landvetter airport after security found substances believed to be the explosive TATP in his luggage. The man is alleged to be of Syrian descent, Sweden’s major newspaper Göteborgs-Posten reports.
The suspect was arrested by police at 8 o’clock on Thursday morning after being stopped at a security check before boarding a flight to another EU country. Police were called after luggage scanning equipment detected contents that could be dangerous. Two containers with dark liquid and a larger with a lighter-coloured liquid were found, suspected of being acetone peroxide made with TATP, referred to as ‘Mother of Satan’.
Parts of the airport were then blocked off whilst the National Bomb Guard investigated. The area was reopened later in the day.
“We suspect it is a dangerous substance, but we have not received confirmation about exactly what it is. The man’s belongings were seized for investigative measures,” said Peter Adlersson, President of the West Coast Police Department.
Mother of Satan is a favoured explosive of Islamic State terrorists and was recently used in the failed bombing of a London tube train in September, the main suspect accused in the case being an 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker.
Following the arrest and interrogation of the German national, he was charged on suspicion of “attempted general devastation”. The suspect denies the charges, according to his lawyer.