14 people have been arrested across Denmark and Germany as police break up a suspected Islamic State-loyal terror cell in the process of acquiring bomb-making materials and firearms.
Press Conference takes place — Breitbart London update, Friday 1155:
Speaking at a press conference on Friday morning, Danish counter-terror chief Lene Sørensen said the plot intercepted by officers in recent days is suspected to have radical Islamist inspiration.
A report of the comments in Denmark’s oldest newspaper Berlingske notes Sørensen said she couldn’t be sure exactly where the terror cell was planning to strike, but that it was likely inside Denmark or Germany.
Her colleague Flemming Drejer said an Islamic State flag was found during police raids, and that; “We have found the ingredients needed to make a bomb. We have also found weapons such as pump [action shotguns] and a hunting rifle with binoculars. These are some findings that concern us.”
The security officers said there was no imminent danger to the public.
Read the Associated Press newswire on this story below:
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – The number of people arrested in Denmark and Germany over an alleged terror attack plot rose to 14 on Friday with six more people placed in pre-trial detention.
All but one of the suspects were arrested in Denmark. Three of them were Syrian nationals, aged 33, 36 and 40, who were arrested last weekend.
Authorities in Germany and Denmark initially on Thursday announced eight arrests, and on Friday, another six people were held, police said.
All the detention hearings in Denmark were held behind so-called double closed doors, meaning the case is shrouded in secrecy and few details are made public. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service is planning a news conference later in the day.
The agency, known by its Danish acronym PET, said Thursday that the people arrested in Denmark were suspected “of having acquired ingredients and components for the manufacture of explosives, as well as weapons, or having participated in this.”
The persons’ identities and other nationalities were not made public.
Earlier, German authorities had announced the first three arrests – two in Denmark and one in Germany. They said the suspects were alleged to have purchased several kilograms (pounds) of chemicals in January that could be used to manufacture explosives.
A search of a residence in the city of Dessau-Rosslau, between Naumburg and Berlin, turned up 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of black powder, and fuses, the German prosecutor said. More chemicals were seized in Denmark.
PET said those arrested in Denmark are suspected of “having planned one or more terrorist attacks or participated in attempted terrorism.” It did not say where such an attack would take place.
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