Prosecutors allege that the trio probably planned “murder, manslaughter” and “subversive acts of violence.”
According to the public prosecutor’s office, police in Germany have arrested three teenagers on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
Two girls aged 15 and 16 and a 15-year-old boy were arrested because they were “strongly suspected of having planned an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack and committed themselves to carrying it out,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Friday.
The three young people came from the Düsseldorf region in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and are said to have planned “murder and manslaughter” and prepared “a serious act of violence that was dangerous to the state,” according to the statement.
The country’s Central Office for Combating Terrorism applied for an arrest warrant against the young people during the Easter holidays.
They had formed a chat group and had not set a date or location for the attack, but investigators said they “certainly saw the danger.”
Authorities did not provide any further information about the alleged conspiracy or how far the plans had progressed. They pointed to the young age of the suspects and the ongoing investigation.
However, the Bild newspaper reported that the trio were allegedly planning attacks on believers in churches and police stations with knives and Molotov cocktails, thereby following the ideology of the IS group (IS).
The teens also considered whether they should get firearms, the mass-produced newspaper reported.
Germany has been on high alert for terrorist attacks since the Gaza war began on October 7, as its political and military support for Israel comes under increasing scrutiny in the conflict that has killed more than 33,500 Palestinians.
German authorities arrested three people in January over a suspected attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve.
Last month, police arrested two Afghan nationals linked to ISIL for allegedly planning an attack on police near the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Koran.
Police in northern Germany said on Thursday they had offered a reward of 5,000 euros ($5,330) for providing information about an arson attack on a synagogue in the city of Oldenburg last week.
Anonymous online supporters and IS affiliates have also threatened to attack football stadiums across Europe, including in Germany. A media outlet linked to ISIS published a picture of a red target marking on groups of people in front of Munich’s Allianz Arena before a big game at the end of March.
European Champions League matches this week were also threatened by the group, but the tournament eventually went ahead as planned in London, Paris and Madrid, albeit under increased security measures.