German police have arrested an Iranian man who was suspected of planning an "Islamist-related" terror attack using deadly chemicals, said authorities on Sunday.
Police officers in the western city of Munster said that the suspect, a 32-year-old man, was believed to have procured unspecified amounts of the toxins cyanide and ricin. This was allegedly in preparation for an "Islamist-motivated" attack.
Terror Attack Using Deadly Chemicals
The individual was detained by authorities following an investigation by the North Rhine-Westphalia Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism. It is a unit of the Dusseldorf Public Prosecutor's Office.
In a statement, Holger Heming from the Dusseldorf public prosecutor's office said that a "serious tip-off" from a security agency of a "friendly state" was what prompted police to intervene during the night.
Law enforcement personnel seized electronic storage devices but found neither cyanide nor ricin during a search of the man's home located in the city of Castrop-Rauxel, said Heming. Police said that an investigation was underway, adding that another individual was being held over the case, as per CNN.
Heming also confirmed that the second person detained was the first suspect's brother as police said that a decision on whether to issue an official arrest warrant would be made at a later date.
While the investigation is still ongoing, it remains unclear exactly how far the attack plans have progressed. Heming said that he did not want to speculate on the potential target of the suspected terror attack.
Islamist-Related Attacks in Germany
According to BBC, under Germany's laws, the charge of a "serious act of violence endangering the state" is punishable by a prison sentence of between six months and 10 years. The situation comes as the country has become the target of numerous Islamist attacks in the last few years.
This includes a 2016 truck attack on Christmas markets in Berlin that resulted in the death of 12 people and the injury of dozens of others. This particular incident was caused by Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links.
Ricin, one of the toxic chemicals that was thought to be part of the terror attack, is found naturally in castor beans and can cause death within 36 to 72 hours from exposure to an amount as small as a pinhead. Currently, there are no known antidotes for the chemical.
German domestic intelligence services said that the number of members of supporters of Islamist causes has decreased by 1.5% to 28,290 in 2021. The agency cited the "military breakup" of the militant Islamic State group as the contributing factor to the drop.
News regarding the searches made on Sunday came a month after German authorities arrested 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor's office said was preparing a violent overthrow of the state, Reuters reported.
In a statement, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the country's security services took any information about Islamist terror threats very seriously. She added that 21 Islamist attacks have been prevented in the nation since the beginning of the century.
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