BERLIN (Sputnik) — Police in the state of Lower Saxony arrested two suspected Islamists during a special operation earlier in the day. They are reportedly an Algerian and a Nigerian nationals in their 20s.
"Our employees found pellet guns remade into lethal weapons as well as firearms, IS [Daesh] flags and machetes," Uwe Luehrig said.
Earlier in the day German police reportedly arrested on Thursday two jihadists suspected of planning a terrorist attack during a special operation in Gottingen. The arrested men are an Algerian national, 27, and a Nigerian, 23.
German police searched a total of 12 locations in Goettingen as well as in the neighboring northern state of Hesse. Luehrig said the operation had been planned a week in advance.
The decision to search the homes of suspects and people close to them was taken after police assessed the risk of a terrorist attack as "high." "The level of threat was obvious," Luehrig said.
Both suspects were residents of Goettingen. They had been under surveillance for a long time on suspicion of being radicalized.
German law enforcement agencies have been on high alert, conducting operations to capture suspected Islamists, since a truck attack by a failed Tunisian asylum seeker on a Berlin Christmas market last December killed 12 people and injured scores of others. It was claimed by the IS.
