Six Syrian men arrested across Germany on suspicion of Isil 'Christmas market' plot

Six Syrian men were arrested in raids across Germany on Tuesday morning on suspicion of planning a terror attack on behalf of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

According to unconfirmed reports the target of the planned attack was a traditional Christmas market which opens in the western city of Essen next week.

Officials have yet to comment on the target of the planned attack. A statement by prosecutors said the men were “planning an attack with weapons or explosives on a public target in Germany”. 

The plot had not yet advanced beyond the planning stage, prosecutors said.

The arrested men are all Syrian nationals aged between 20 and 28.

They all entered Germany as asylum-seekers, and are believed to have known each other in Syria before travelling to Europe.

The arrests come 11 months after Anis Amri, a rejected Tunisian asylum-seeker, killed 12 people and injured more than 50 when he drove a stolen lorry into a packed Christmas market in Berlin.

Cities across Germany have ordered new security measures for Christmas markets this year, including concrete bollards to prevent a repeat of the lorry attack.

Details of the new plot were not clear on Tuesday morning, but it appears from prosecutors’ statements the arrested men were planning to use a different means of attack.

The suspects were held in a series of coordinated raids in the cities of Essen, Kassel, Hannover and Leipzig. More than 500 police officers took part in the operation.

According to an unconfirmed report in Welt newspaper, authorities were alerted to the suspects by other asylum-seekers who recognised them as jihadists who had fought for Isil in Syria.

Four of the men entered Germany as asylum-seekers in September 2014 — before Angela Merkel opened the country’s borders in her controversial refugee policy. The other two entered in 2015.