Police arrested four alleged right-wing extremists early Wednesday suspected of planning attacks on mosques and asylum seekers in Germany, the country’s top prosecutor said.
The Federal Prosecutor’s office said the four suspects procured explosives to carry out terrorist attacks in small groups on targets including mosques, accommodation for asylum seekers, and well-known Salafis—people who follow an ultra-fundamentalist branch of Islam.
According to the prosecutor’s office, 56-year old Andreas H., 39-year old Markus W., 22-year old Denise Vanessa G. and 47-year old Olaf O. are suspected of forming a right-wing terrorist group with other suspects called “Oldschool Society,” or OSS, no later than November last year.
Acting on information from domestic intelligence agencies, police searched the residences of the four German citizens detained Wednesday, the homes of five other suspects, and other properties in the states of Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the prosecutor’s office said.
The searches uncovered “pyrotechnic materials with large explosive force” and further evidence, according to the prosecutor’s statement. The investigation is examining whether the group had fixed targets or timings for attacks.